There are hundreds of voices we could use to offer a glowing reference for Liverpool’s £116million man Florian Wirtz but a surprisingly enlightening one could be the rival manager plotting how to stop him this weekend.
‘He is an excellent player,’ replied Everton boss David Moyes when asked about Wirtz on the eve of Saturday’s Merseyside derby. ‘He is a really good signing for Liverpool. He will go on to be an exceptional player in time. People will soon recognise that.
‘He is a really, really talented footballer. I wish he was playing for me!’
Just about every football manager walking the planet wished the same, David. Readers may not have formed their opinion on Wirtz just yet but his name has been on the lips of industry experts for years. ‘Wirtz will be one of the best in the world,’ was the general gist of things.
European heavyweights Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid tried but failed to sign him and his new boss Arne Slot has talked him up as a potential world-beater. Still only 22, Wirtz has got his big move to Liverpool and has moved on from being the future of German football to a worldwide name.
Here’s the catch, though: since his move to Merseyside, Wirtz hasn’t quite lived up to his exalted billing.
Florian Wirtz arrived on Liverpool with a fantastic reputation but the £116million man has struggled to live up to his billing so far
Wirtz made his Premier League debut against Bournemouth on August 15 but is still yet to register a goal or assist
But Everton boss David Moyes, whose side face their fierce rivals this weekend, is sure Wirtz will come good
Search his name online and most results are negative. Fans of Liverpool’s domestic rivals and supporters of Bayern, whom he was heavily tipped to join but snubbed, are all hoping for a good old bit of schadenfreude.
Wirtz has learned quickly that at a club the size of Liverpool, your every move is micro-analysed. If he had a quiet game for Bayer Leverkusen, and there were very few of those to be fair, he could get away with it. A quiet game for Liverpool, though, and it sparks uproar.
He is not alone. Milos Kerkez, a £40m summer signing, was substituted on 38 minutes last weekend while walking a disciplinary tightrope – and he has had some stick since. Newcastle fans, likewise, found joy in the fact Alexander Isak sent a few shots narrowly wide on his debut for the Reds against Atletico Madrid in midweek.
Considering Liverpool have won five from five, those inside the building may laugh off any suggestions their signings have not settled yet, and ask any detractors to reserve their judgments for later in the season.
It is fair, though, to say we have not seen the best of Wirtz. This time last year, he had four goals and one assist for Leverkusen. In total he got to 31 goal involvements, having notched 38 the year before as his club won the Bundesliga and German Cup, unbeaten in domestic football. This year, he has zero goals and zero assists.
Sources put that down to fitness and the length of time it takes for new signings to adjust to the intensity of the Premier League. His former Leverkusen colleague, Jeremie Frimpong, has struggled with muscle injuries since making the same journey to Liverpool.
You don’t have to look far for other examples of Bundesliga stars taking time to accumulate – Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Jadon Sancho are just some of the stars who haven’t replicated their exploits in Germany on these shores, and closer to home Ryan Gravenberch took a year to get his feet under the table before blossoming into one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.
Liverpool’s fitness gurus have been putting Wirtz through his paces to bulk him up, so he is ready for the rough-and-tumble of English football after going through tough gym sessions that often involve giant medicine balls.
Slot was asked about this on Friday and said: ‘No, no, we do nothing differently with Wirtz than the others. But what is different for him is that he went to a new club where we probably do things a lot different on and off the pitch. So he needs to adapt.
Milos Kerkez is another Liverpool summer signing who has already had some tricky moments at Anfield
Wirtz made the move to Liverpool alongside fellow Bayer Leverkusen team-mate Jeremie Frimpong
‘Hugo (Ekitike, another big-money arrival from the Bundesliga) and Flo are used to playing three games a week – he needs to adapt because every single game is tough.
‘He gets better and better every single game. He always wants to have the ball, even if he has a few moments where we feel like he could do better. He just always wants to keep the ball, always keeps on trying. And he gets better and better, fitter and fitter.
‘That’s maybe the thing that matters most, because we don’t have to teach him how to play football. He just has to adapt to the intensity levels of the Premier League.’
A month before Wirtz signed for Liverpool, when it had become clear that he had chosen England over staying in Germany, Daily Mail Sport went out to Munich to talk to experts who had followed his journey and he was described to us as a ‘complete footballer’.
It is understood Virgil van Dijk spoke to Wirtz on the phone before his transfer but he did not need much persuading – Wirtz, plus his parents Hanz and Karin and his nine siblings, decided Liverpool was the place for him.
Manchester City had been firmly on the table at one point but he is said to have had reservations about how long Pep Guardiola would be at the club, while Bayern boss Vincent Kompany was rejected, politely, because Wirtz wanted to test himself in England.
Wirtz has acknowledged the difference in intensity of the Premier League already but, against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, he had his best game in a Liverpool shirt.
He was getting on the ball more and doing what he does best: driving at opponents and exploiting gaps.
Wirtz had his best game yet in Liverpool’s dramatic 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid
The German is said to be working hard on the training ground, with Liverpool’s physios trying to bulk him up
‘He can control the game and the rhythm,’ Maximilian Koch, chief reporter for the Abendzeitung newspaper in Germany, tells us.
‘He reminds me of Andres Iniesta and Kevin De Bruyne, a very intelligent and creative player. He can also score and assist.’
Another German expert, Heiko Niedderer, who has worked at BILD for 20 years, adds: ‘He’s one of the best offensive players we have had. We have the two of them, Musiala and Wirtz.
‘They are both pretty special but Wirtz is even more complete now. He can do everything.’
Wirtz is not said to be fazed by his big price tag, which is a base fee of £100m that will reach £116m only if Liverpool dominate both at home and in Europe for the entirety of his six-year contract.
In fact, it is used as a bit of a banter point inside the training ground. There are jokes about how, if he was signed now, £75m signing Van Dijk would have cost more than Wirtz and Isak due to inflation in the transfer market.
Aside from the on-pitch work, Wirtz has been described as a quiet, down-to-earth chap, purely focused on football.
Part of his reasoning for coming to England was that he thought it would make him a better player, something he ran by national team boss Julian Nagelsmann.
Wirtz, seen here celebrating after scoring against Ireland earlier this month, has long been held up as the future of German football
His parents, who are his agents, help him stay grounded. Once when away on national team duty as a flourishing teenager, they paid for a teacher to attend the camp so he did not fall behind with his studies for the German equivalent of A-Levels.
Everyone you speak to believes Wirtz will soon set the Premier League alight, despite a perceived slow start, perhaps beginning with this weekend’s Merseyside derby.
We started on a quote from rival boss Moyes, so here is another glowing reference from Slot to finish: ‘To say that he’s an artist doesn’t do him justice. He is an artist, but he can be mean as well.
‘Otherwise, you can’t reach the levels he has reached. He works incredibly hard to get better and better and better. He’s not going to hide.’
