Florian Wirtz has scored four goals and provided seven assists in 29 appearances for Liverpool since he signed for the Reds in a then club-record transfer
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has spoken about Florian Wirtz
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has spoken about Florian Wirtz(Image: Getty Images)
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Steven Gerrard has defended Florian Wirtz's start to life at Liverpool and believes he is going to be become a "world superstar" in the future. Wirtz, 22, joined the Reds in a club-record £116million move from Bayer Leverkusen last June but he didn't hit the ground running, failing to score in his opening 20 matches for the Reds.
However, Wirtz's form has improved across the last month. Indeed, he has fired in four goals and three assists in his last nine appearances - a run that has seen him cement his place in Arne Slot's first-choice starting XI.
The German started on the left for Liverpool's 3-0 win against Marseille on Wednesday night but has been used in a number of roles, including out on the right, as the centre forward and in his more natural No.10 position.
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Delivering his verdict on Wirtz's time at Liverpool so far, Reds legend Gerrard was full of praise for the ex-Leverkusen man and believes the sky is the limit for him. "He struggled at the beginning, which I think can be expected when you come to the most fast intense league in the world," Gerrard told TNT Sports.
"I don't think anyone's ever questioned his talent. You can see there his vision, his awareness and his game intelligence, here he is on the last line, unbelievable touch, getting his first goal, I think that helped him a lot in terms of his confidence," Gerrard added, when reflecting on Wirtz's first Liverpool strike last month.
"But I watched him even before he came to Liverpool. He competed against one of my Rangers' teams, this kid is potentially is going to be a world superstar. He's come to England on his own, I'm told, new place, new environment, he's still only 22. I think about when I was 22, I was nowhere near my peak or nowhere near where I wanted to be.
Florian Wirtz in action
Liverpool's Florian Wirtz(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
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"So you can see already in a short space of time, Liverpool are he's working with this kid in the gym, I mean look at that for a goal, the way he just reverses that. I think you see him grow now and evolve and he's starting to blossom because he feels more at home.
"He's settled now in England, he's up to speed in terms of the tempo of the Premier League. But I think there's loads more to come from this kid. I think it's clear that he can get to a world class level."
Gerrard was speaking before Liverpool went to Marseille and beat the Ligue 1 side 3-0. Dominik Szoboszlai put the Reds ahead with a sublime free-kick in first-half stoppage-time, before Geronimo Rulli's own-goal doubled their advantage. Cody Gakpo then put gloss on the scoreline in the 92nd minute.
"You know it is always very difficult to play against Marseille because of the passionate fans they have and the quality of the players," Slot said in his post-match press conference. "What makes it even harder is they have such a good manager, who always lets his team play so well. We were prepared for that.
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"I think in the first half you could see we took the ball three or four times off them in very promising situations, but we couldn't find the player that was completely free. We were in four-versus-three situations a few times and the one time we did find the player, it was fractionally offside.
"On the ball, I think we were controlled - although I maybe better not use that word because it has been [misinterpreted] a few times lately - but we could find players in between the lines, we could bring our attackers into promising positions.
"It took a while before we scored the second because I think we had chances earlier on to score the second. The thing that was different for the first time this season than all the other games was that the moment we were having a big chance to score the 2-0 that hit the post, 10 seconds later they had a big chance.
"Usually this season this ball goes in and we're all complaining, but now the ball went over, and we extended our lead to 2-0 and 3-0. The performance is still the same but the perspective of how people probably talk about us is completely different."