Liverpool signed Florian Wirtz for a fee of £100 million from Bayer Leverkusen.
Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann has saluted Florian Wirtz for overcoming his early Liverpool flak.
The attacking midfielder joined the Reds from Bayer Leverkusen for £100 million in the summer transfer window. Wirtz snubbed a move to Bayern Munich in his homeland to instead complete a transfer to Merseyside.
However, Wirtz endured a difficult start to his Liverpool career as he acclimatised to the physicality of the Premier League. He had to wait until 27 December to score his maiden goal in the league. But in recent months, the 23-year-old has thrived in Arne Slot’s side. In total, he has bagged six goals and created eight assists in all competitions.
And Nagelsmann is not surprised that Wirtz is now displaying his quality for the Reds. The Germany head coach told Kicker: “When the whole world is writing that hundreds of millions of euros have been spent on a ‘flop’, you take the first step to combat the perception.
“One is forced to draw energy from the perception. That’s what Flo did. And that’s why I believe this experience was more valuable for his development than if he had scored eight goals and provided ten assists right from the start.
“He joined a top team at the same time three other stars did. Everyone was fighting to claim their place. Flo got through it and I top my cap to him. What he accomplished there was not easy and this experience of his will help us on the national team.”
Wirtz is currently unavailable for Liverpool because of a back injury. He has missed the past two games and looks set to be ruled out of Tuesday’s trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League and the FA Cup clash against Wolves three days later.
Reds head coach Arne Slot said: “Not anything different than what I said after the game [on Saturday]. The game tomorrow will probably come too soon and maybe the game at the weekend as well. Let’s see how that ends up. “But we hope to have him back somewhere next week. Maybe earlier. Maybe a bit later. But that timescale.”
Continue Reading