How Emiliano Martinez has absolutely embarrassed Florian Wirtz in 2026
Chelsea’s Emiliano Martinez and Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz do not have too much in common.
One is a goalkeeper who cost £7.5m, the other is an attacker who was sold for £116m. You cannot really compare the two.
Yet there is one stat where the Chelsea star and Liverpool man are level, which is a very bad look for the latter. Wirtz was brought in from Bayer Leverkusen to be Liverpool’s playmaker. He should be leading the charts for numerous attacking stats, but that is not the case.
In fact, according to WhoScored, Wirtz and Martinez have both created the same number of big chances in the Premier League this year, three. That is not good enough for a £100m attacker.
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Interestingly, Wirtz has actually been linked with a move to Chelsea. After working with Xabi Alonso and enjoying great success under him at Leverkusen, it was only a matter of time.
However, it is quite clear that Chelsea would be wise to stay away from Wirtz. The transition from the Bundesliga to the Premier League is not an easy one, which Wirtz has come to learn. There is no guarantee that Alonso would be able to revive the German.
Even if he could, Wirtz does not need to be a priority and would probably end up being a very expensive substitute for Chelsea. The Blues are well covered in the No.10 position.
In Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers, they have two of the Premier League’s best attacking midfielders, who are thriving as the twin No.10s in Alonso’s 3-4-2-1 formation at the moment. Rogers scored again over the weekend — his fourth of the season — and Palmer provided an assist.
Rogers is in undroppable form right now. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was quite critical of Rogers’ £117m move to Chelsea, but there is not much the Paris Saint-Germain legend can say today. Wirtz, though, is another matter.
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