Andoni Iraola must solve Florian Wirtz riddle after shocking early World Cup exit

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Liverpool's once-record signing is already out of the World Cup after Germany lost on penalties to unfancied Paraguay.Florian Wirtz was off the pitch by the time Germany fell victim to the biggest shock of the World Cup so far, as Julian Nagelsmann's team were dumped out of the tournament in the first knockout round by unfancied Paraguay.The embarrassment of the situation was plain to see as a stunned Nagelsmann sat with his head in his hands in the dugout, surrounded by a floored squad of players seemingly paralysed by the enormity of their failure.At least Liverpool's £116m signing was spared the pressure of having to take a penalty, instead watching on in horror as his compatriots missed not once but three times before the dogged South Americans finally completed the most unlikely of upsets.Wirtz, for his part, came away from the match with a smart assist for Kai Havertz's equaliser before being withdrawn in extra-time to make way for fresh legs.A quick look at the 23-year-old's tournament stats shows that although he did not score himself, he clocked up three assists in four matches. Not bad at all.But Germany are out of the World Cup and what that assist tally doesn't tell us is how marginalised Wirtz appeared in a team he is supposed to be one of the stars of.One of my annoyances of Liverpool's miserable Premier League title defence was how often he was deployed by Arne Slot on the left-hand side of the attack when he had surely been signed as a goalscoring No.10.My expectation, as a Kop season-ticket holder, was that I would be seeing him in a more central position for his national team, but clearly I had not done my homework, as Nagelsmann opted for Jamal Musiala in this role for the first two group stage matches, before switching to a 4-4-2 with Felix Nmecha and Alexander Pavlovic pairing in the engine room.As a result, Wirtz spent almost the entire tournament operating on the left-hand side, and the results were somewhat predictable given what we have seen at Anfield since last August.The former Bayer Leverkusen prodigy has an effortless ability on the ball that can make other professionals look like mere mortals, but what we are yet to see since his huge transfer to the Reds is an ability to take a game by the scruff of the neck and dictate how it is played.And while he has taken his time to adapt to the rigours and increased physicality of the Premier League, he had a similar issue overcoming the agricultural nature of the Paraguay players, who, to a man, looked ready to tackle a tank in pursuit of victory.He certainly wasn't on his own in that sense, with the German team struggling to find a solution to combat the aggression of their eventual victors, who can count themselves very fortunate that Jonathan Tah's extra-time goal was ruled out for the softest of goalkeeper infringements by an over-picky VAR team.But if I was hoping that this World Cup would tell me more about Wirtz ahead of the new Premier League season, it is difficult not to feel like we were treated to just more of the same.

And although he did show his undoubted ability in patches, there is surely no grounds on which anyone can say that his first season on Merseyside has been a success.It can be true that both Slot and Nagelsmann have failed to get the best out of him, whilst also arguing that Wirtz has not yet blossomed into the dominant star at a footballing powerhouse that he has threatened to become.We will get the chance to see whether another coach can extract maximum impact from him, just as Xabi Alonso did at Bayer Leverkusen, when Andoni Iraola starts working with Wirtz in a few weeks' time.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook pageThe signing of Victor Munoz from Osasuna and the failed pursuit of Yan Diomande from RB Leipzig suggest that the Reds' new head coach is building pace, trickery and aggression around a central attacking role for Wirtz, and that is music to my ears.But much like his fellow record signing teammate, Alexander Isak, the jury is very much out on whether the lofty expectations his transfer fee demands will ever be realised in a red shirt.It will be as much a test of Iraola's coaching and management skills as of Wirtz's desire to be a leading light for the Reds over the next few seasons.

His disappointment of exiting the World Cup so early can be tempered by the fact that he will now return to pre-season training earlier than expected and the hard work with his new manager can start straight away.Wirtz could have taken the easy option when he joined Liverpool and instead gone to Bayern Munich. Now he must prove that he was right to make that call; otherwise, it would be little surprise to me in 12 months' time if he was on his way back to the Bundesliga, wondering what could have been.