Florian Wirtz remains without a goal in the Premier League this season and Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola admits his position will not lend itself to him scoring regularly

Andoni Iraola admits that Florian Wirtz is "not going to score 15 goals a season" as he launched another defence of the Liverpool playmaker.

Now into his second season at Anfield, more is being expected of the German, who cost a British record £116million when he moved to the Premier League from Bayer Leverkusen.

He was part of a hugely underwhelming Liverpool team that finished fifth last season, which resulted in Arne Slot's sacking, and now Iraola is tasked with getting the most out of Wirtz. He has been regularly criticised with the Reds yet to find a position that routinely gets the best out of him.

Wirtz has been hauled off after 70 minutes or earlier in three of Liverpool's seven games, but Iraola has claimed that the role that the German plays means he's never going to be regularly scoring.

Make sure you don't miss sport's biggest stories and breaking news by making the Daily Mirror one of your Google preferred sources.

“I’m delighted with Florian,” Iraola told the El Boro podcast. “He’s coming off three very good performances and I trust this is the start of finding his confidence again. We believe in him a lot. He is judged a lot in terms of goals and assists, but he is a player for whom that won’t be his strength.

“He’s not a No.10 or a second striker who is going to score 15 goals this year. No. I mean if he can do that, even better, but he’s a player who gives us a lot of control over the matches. He has a lot of confidence on the ball. Ultimately, we have to make him feel comfortable but he’s probably feeling more comfortable in Champions League matches.

“In the Premier League, he has to get used to those duels. Here, duels are really hard to win. He’s in that process. It’s true he’s been here a year but he’s still acclimatising to this competition. But in terms of talent I have no doubt about him and in terms of attitude either. He is a player who works a lot.”

Wirtz's performance in the Champions League win over LASK recently was arguably his best performance in a Liverpool shirt. The German was hugely creative with Bradley Barcola among the beneficiaries.

The Premier League has been a different story and he's come up with just the two assists domestically so far, and remains without a goal. Last term Wirtz equally found it difficult to regularly influence games in the final third.

Fitting the ex-Leverkusen man into the line-up is also having notable knock on affects. If he plays as the No 10 then only two midfield slots are available, leaving big names missing out. Equally if he were to play from out wide, which is an option, then he is playing instead of one of the number of wingers in the Liverpool squad.