Replacing Florian Wirtz is ‘almost impossible’ – Erik ten Hag | OneFootball

Florian Wirtz was instrumental in Bayer Leverkusen’s Bundesliga winning campaign in 2024, scoring 11 goals and providing 12 assists. The German playmaker replicated his goal contributions last season (10 goals, 13 assists) as Xabi Alonso’s side finished runners-up to Bayern Munich, but now die Werkself will have to adapt to life without their prized asset after Wirtz left for Liverpool for €125m.

As well as losing Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Granit Xhaka, Alonso also left for Real Madrid with Bayer Leverkusen moving quickly to appoint Erik ten Hag as the Spaniard’s successor. And so it’s been a transitional summer as the BayArena outfit.

Bayer Leverkusen suffered a 2-0 defeat against Chelsea in their final pre-season friendly ahead of next weekend’s DFB Pokal game against Regionalliga side Sonnenhof Großaspach. Speaking after Friday night’s defeat in London, Ten Hag was questioned about Wirtz.

“There are some players, like Florian Wirtz, he is very young but already has a big impact on the game, for the game at Leverkusen and the national team and now we have to work together to replace him, but it’s almost impossible but we will go for it,” said the Dutchman.

Bayer Leverkusen have signed Ibrahim Maza (Hertha Berlin, €12m) and Malik Tillman (PSV, €35m) to replace Wirtz, but they could yet make another attacking transfer with Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche a target.

GGFN | Daniel Pinder