LONDON — Liverpool came from behind to beat nine-man Brentford 2-1 in west London on Saturday as Florian Wirtz delivered his most influential display since his club-record £116m move from Bayer Leverkusen in June 2025. The Reds scored twice in the second half against a Brentford side reduced to 10 men before half-time to bounce back from their first league defeat of the season against Manchester City last weekend.
Wirtz was at the heart of everything in the final third and created nine chances from open play, more than any other player has managed in a Premier League match over the past six seasons. The last player to create as many in a single game was Sadio Mane for Liverpool against Burnley in January 2021 (also nine), while he is the first player to reach that tally in an away game in more than 15 years since Samir Nasri registered 10 for Manchester City against Tottenham in August 2011. The Germany international, 23, completed 53 of his 65 passes (81.5%), including a match-leading 38 inside the final third, and registered a match-leading 12 final-third entries and 37 passes in the final third. Liverpool registered 14 of their 21 attempts after the interval with their man advantage.
Despite answering critics — Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard had said this week the playmaker could benefit from being taken out of the team to overcome a lack of confidence — the impact of his style on the side's balance remains under scrutiny. BBC Sport pundit and former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy said: "They got the job done. First and foremost, that's another win on the road, which is always positive. But I thought they looked too easy to play against. The spaces are too big. They're playing with two wingers and Wirtz at 10, so they're relying heavily on the two midfield players to try and cover so much space. It was too easy for Brentford to play out and to get in behind. That would be the biggest concern today for me." Wirtz has now created 18 chances in the Premier League this season, level with Brighton's Pascal Gross, and played in Munoz to begin the fightback to assist in back-to-back games for Liverpool across all competitions for the first time, though it was only his second goal involvement in seven league games. He lost possession 19 times — only Milos Kerkez (20) lost it more often among Liverpool players — and won just one of his nine duels. Murphy added: "They don't look solid and don't look together in terms of shape. Instead of a number 10, where Wirtz is struggling to impact games, put three midfielders in. Always, the priority is foundation, defence, stability, being hard to beat."
Victory lifted Liverpool to fifth in the table with three wins from their first seven league games under Andoni Iraola, who replaced Arne Slot in the summer, and secured their first away league win after conceding first since December 2023, ending a run of 19 winless away games when going 1-0 behind. Striker Alexander Isak returned from injury, but Dominik Szoboszlai and Jeremie Frimpong suffered injuries on Saturday. Iraola told BBC Sport: "When you come here, you see the results of Brentford at home and you have to be ready for this kind of battle. We had a lot of chances. Even at the end, we had some counters where we were three against one and need to finish. When we go 2-1, every throw-in and every free-kick can be a problem. We are in a delicate situation with some of the players. We were talking about this run of four games in 10 days, it's very, very demanding. We have to rest again because we have another big, big game against Villarreal [in the Champions League on Tuesday]." The comeback follows Liverpool's 2-1 win away at nine-man Brentford earlier on Saturday.