Florian Wirtz made headlines with his nine chances created for Liverpool against Brentford, but the narrative about the German playmaker is showing no signs of slowing

After a good performance in the Champions League midweek, the Florian Wirtz narrative was already set as Liverpool took on Brentford this weekend.

Would he prove that his showing in LASK on Wednesday was the start of him fulfilling his vast potential, or a sign that he can only do it in Europe rather than against physically stronger Premier League opposition?

The reality, of course, was somewhere in between. There is, after all, or at least there should be, some room for nuance. While he might have cost $157 million (£116 million), Wirtz should be judged the same as anyone else.

Against Brentford, the 23-year-old created nine chances for his teammates from open play — a stat that did the rounds on social media in the hours that followed.

That means two things: the German became the first player in two years to generate that many opportunities in one Premier League fixture. He was also the first in five years to do it from open play.

It felt, though, watching Wirtz, that he was capable of more. It would be hard to describe his performance as him grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck, and, of course, it was against 10 — and then briefly nine — men.

That is not to say that Wirtz was poor — just different from the usual extremes. Creating chances is his job, and it was a good pass — though one you would expect him to make — that set up the equalizer scored by Victor Munoz.

Equally, though, he did not put in a showing that was anything close to hitting the levels that he remains capable of. He was good, but not exceptional. His nine created chances generated a total xA (expected assists) value of just 0.19.

That, not least because Liverpool won, is absolutely fine. But it would be silly to make Wirtz the defining narrative on a day when Munoz was more decisive and Alexander Isak more clinical.

"We have to move away from expecting to see special moments from him. He needs to help us as a team. We have to make sure that Flo feels comfortable with us," Germany boss Jurgen Klopp said during the international break.

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The same, in many ways, can be said of Bradley Barcola, another big-money buy who is still finding his feet.

There were good bits from the Frenchman, like when he hit the crossbar, but there was also a failed attempt at a chip when he was one-on-one that could have been costly, and a bizarre decision to try and lay a pass off to Lewis Koumas rather than shoot himself late on.

In the cases of both Wirtz and Barcola, it would perhaps be most useful to simply let them play without constant scrutiny, allowing them to relax. Given the price tags, though, that is unlikely to happen.