Liverpool and Germany must have patience if Florian Wirtz is going to realise his full potential
Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai of Liverpool warm up
Liverpool are going to have to be patient with Florian Wirtz(Image: George Wood/Getty Images)
Liverpool knew full well what they were getting themselves into when they threw down £116m on Florian Wirtz. He is an attacking midfielder who already possesses the ability to change the outcome of a match on a sixpence, but he is still also a 22-year-old learning his way in the world.
Wirtz commanded such a huge fee because he has already proven himself capable of coping with the demands of professional football. It was in tandem with his rise, Xabi Alonso was able to shape Bayer Leverkusen into the invincible Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal-winning side of 2023/24.
Both Leverkusen and Liverpool recognised, along with his 57 goals and 65 assists for his now former club, Wirtz's ceiling is even higher still. That is why the Reds were not only comfortable with challenging rivals who would barely raise an eyebrow to spending a nine-figure sum on one player alone, but beating them too.
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We're still in the infancy of Wirtz's long and hopefully prosperous Liverpool career, so it would just be plainly fickle to jump to any conclusions after one Community Shield match and three more in the Premier League, right?
Talk about jumping the gun, but the German media haven't exactly let Wirtz off lightly in the aftermath of the country's shock 2-0 defeat to Slovakia in their opening FIFA World Cup qualifier on Thursday night. BILD's individual analysis of the midfielder, brutally titled 'superstar crisis', has plenty to digest in itself before questioning 'what is going on with Wirtz?'
They write: "Since his mega-transfer to Liverpool, things haven't been going well. Wirtz hasn't impressed at either club or national team. He was supposed to lead the attack in the absence of Jamal Musiala (broken leg), but against Slovakia, he was almost invisible.
"Only in the 13th and 32nd minutes did he appear dangerous, otherwise the 140 million (Euro) man remained pale. Things are also faltering at Liverpool.
"In the Premier League, Wirtz often appears pale, not yet integrated. Against Arsenal, he limped off after 88 minutes with a 'stiff leg'. At least: Against Arsenal, Wirtz played his best competitive game so far in a Liverpool shirt.
"He was particularly impressive in the second half: 46 touches, 100 percent successful dribbles, 71 percent won tackles. There's still room for improvement – but the direction is right.
"Now the fans hope that Wirtz will make an impact in Liverpool and at the DFB – ideally on Sunday in the World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland in Cologne."
Analysing the shortcomings of a player in Wirtz's circumstance hardly makes it a fair fight. For one, it is not as if this collective crop that makes up the German national team are cut from the same cloth as 2014's World Cup winners.
They haven't been at the top level for the best part of a decade and their latest run of one win, two draws, and three losses in Julian Nagelsmann's last six matches isn't going to change by the influence of one talented individual alone.
Wirtz is actively dealing with the pressures of everything that took place this summer. In the month around his 22nd birthday he took the decision with his family's help to move to an entirely difficult country, to the world's most difficult league to compete in, and even still, it was to join the reigning champions of that division.
That is a challenge he himself has recognised, having said it was: "the more difficult step to leave that whole environment [Germany] and go to another country with all the changes. And to a new league with a different style of play."
Wirtz added: "I would definitely say that it's a bigger challenge, one I consciously chose to overcome and become a better player. Of course, the fans expect a bit more than when the club signs a player for little money.
"But I'm not putting any pressure on myself; I'm just trying to do my best, no matter how much money I'm signed for."
The truth of the matter is, the pressure exists. Wirtz's transfer a British record for a matter of weeks until it was broken by Alexander Isak's £125m deadline day arrival at Anfield. The German is only going to be able to overcome that with work ethic and good performances.
That is going to take patience, so can hardly be a crisis at this extremely early stage. Liverpool's shining example is Dominik Szoboszlai. Arrived from RB Leipzig in summer 2023 for £60m, started off brightly but form had fallen away by the end of a gruelling first season acclimatising to English football.
It may have impacted his talismanic persona playing for Hungary at Euro 2024 last summer, but the Hungarian emerged and went on to play a starring role in Arne Slot's team winning the Premier League in 2024/25.
You would struggle to find a more hard-working midfielder in the English top-flight in little over two years since he came to these shores. His back-to-back man of the match awards against Newcastle United and Arsenal, with a memorable free-kick against the latter, only emphasises his class.
Wirtz is a similar age, a similar profile of player, and has come from the same division as Szoboszlai when he arrived a Liverpool. With time, he too can build up the same resilience and tailor his skillset to the speed of the game here, and from there the goal contributions should surely flow.