How Florian Wirtz compares to Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah as Liverpool close in on record signing

Move over Darwin Nunez; the misfiring South American striker will soon be usurped as Liverpool's most expensive signing of all time, if reports are to be believed.

Friday the 13th did not prove to be unlucky at all for Reds fans, as it has recently been claimed that the club have agreed to sign Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz for a firm fee of £100m, potentially rising to £115.9m.

The 22-year-old could become the Premier League's record arrival if a certain number of add-ons are hit, and many a debate has already raged about his role in the team and what he might bring to the English champions.

Will Wirtz replace the lost creativity of Trent Alexander-Arnold? Will he oust or work in tandem with Dominik Szoboszlai? And how do his numbers stack up with Liverpool's current attacking options?

In an attempt to answer some of those FAQs, with the help of FBref, Sports Mole provides an in-depth statistical comparison of Wirtz, Alexander-Arnold, Szoboszlai and Liverpool's three most prominent attackers in the 2024-25 league season; Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz.

Wirtz comparison: Goalscoring/shooting

For starters, all six players in our comparison played between 31 and 38 league matches last season; Wirtz actually made the fewest appearances with 31, while Gakpo played the fewest minutes at 1,935.

In terms of pure goalscoring, this will come as a surprise to no-one; the scintillating Salah comfortably leads the way with a whopping 29 Premier League strikes last season, more than double that of any other player on this list.

Diaz was a distant second with 13, while Wirtz's 10 Bundesliga efforts put him level with Gakpo, although all of the Dutchman's efforts came from open play while the Germany international scored two penalties.

Wirtz nevertheless just about managed to over-perform his Expected Goals (xG) tally of 9.4, as did all of Diaz, Gakpo and Salah; Szoboszlai was actually the only one to under-perform, netting six strikes from an xG value of 7.3.

While Wirtz may never top Salah in the goals column, the German does rank the best out of the six when it comes to his shots to shots on target ratio last season; he found the mark with 47.3% of his attempts, while Diaz sits second with 42.3%.

Wirtz's total of 35 shots on target last season was the fifth-most in the Bundesliga, but having made the net ripple 10 times from those attempts, his 0.23 goals per shots on target ratio is the worst of the six - Gakpo leads that statistic with 0.45.

Wirtz comparison: Assisting/playmaking

Banking double figures in both goals and assists last season, Wirtz provided 12 helpers for his teammates in the 2024-25 Bundesliga, six fewer than Salah in the Premier League and six more than Alexander-Arnold.

The 22-year-old did significantly outdo his Expected Assisted Goals (xAG) tally of 7.0 as well, although that also says a lot about the quality of his teammates' finishing at Leverkusen as well as his creative innovation.

Speaking of Wirtz's ingenuity, the German registered a stunning 5.66 shot-creating actions per game in the German top flight last season, putting him well ahead of his future Liverpool colleagues; Salah managed 4.51 per match, while Real Madrid's shiny new toy Alexander-Arnold was down at 3.73.

In addition, Wirtz recorded more goal-creating actions than any other player in the Bundesliga last season with 26, and while Salah just about bested him in that regard with 27, Wirtz's 0.99 GCA per 90 trump the Egyptian's 0.72.

Never one to shy away from charging at defences, Wirtz also topped the Bundesliga's charts for successful take-ons last season, completing 82 from 167 attempts, while Salah won such duels 58 times out of 137.

However, while Wirtz attempted and completed far more take-ons than any of the Liverpool five, Szoboszlai (51.2%) and Gakpo (50.8%) registered a marginally higher success rate than the playmaker's 49.1%; Salah's 42.3% puts him in last place.

The Egyptian easily takes top spot in the progressive carries column with 154, though, although Wirtz's total of 131 was still far superior to any other player in the German top flight. Furthermore, he and Salah jointly top the fouls won column with 39 apiece.

Wirtz comparison: Passing

Alexander-Arnold's bread and butter, the England international both attempted and completed the most passes of the sextet, while Wirtz sits second in both categories and Szoboszlai third.

However, the Hungarian can proudly boast the best completion rate of 84.3%, a fraction higher than Diaz's 84.2%, while Wirtz's 78.3% is still superior to Gakpo, Alexander-Arnold and Salah.

The German tended to keep his passes within the five to 15-yard range, though, completing 870 short balls, 369 medium passes and just 69 long passes travelling 30 yards or more.

On the other hand, Alexander-Arnold found a teammate with a ridiculous 203 long passes in the 2024-25 Premier League campaign, but having naturally attempted so many ambitious balls, his success rate is unsurprisingly below 50%. At the other end, Diaz is the top dog when it comes to long-pass success rate - sitting at an eye-catching 81.1%.

A sensational switch of play has and will always be a trademark of Alexander-Arnold's too, and the right-back completed 32 passes travelling at least 40 yards of the width of the pitch last term, whereas Wirtz only managed that feat on eight occasions.

The versatile German did not shun corner-taking duties, though, taking 42 in the last Bundesliga campaign, meaning that he can act as a direct Alexander-Arnold replacement in that regard.

Wirtz comparison: Defensive actions

While maybe not the area of his game that YouTube reels will highlight, Wirtz has been heralded for his off-the-ball work nearly just as much as his on-the-ball capabilities.

No player in the Bundesliga last term won possession in the final third more often than the 22-year-old, who did so 71 times, while also managing an unrivalled 39 high turnovers, making him tailor-made for Liverpool's pressing machine.

Wirtz also only trails Szoboszlai in the blocks column (goals and shots) in this six-man comparison, registering 32 compared to the Hungarian's 39, and he made just one mistake leading to a shot; Alexander-Arnold was culpable of four such errors.

At just under 5ft 10in tall, aerial battles are unsurprisingly not Wirtz's forte, and he won just nine of his 45 such contests in last season's Bundesliga; Szoboszlai's 45.2% puts him first in that regard.

A famous Portuguese manager once said that people who do not understand football analyse with stats, but if these stats are an indication of what is to come, Liverpool have beaten the competition to a multifaceted and majestic attacking talent, who should be able to justify his nine-figure price tag if he enjoys free rein of the left half-space.

Written by
Ben Knapton