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Florian Wirtz knew his Liverpool struggles were a possibility when he joined – it’s not acknowledged in England what a risk he has taken.
That is the verdict of European football expert Andy Brassell, who believes Wirtz will be unfazed by the intense scrutiny around him.
The German arrived at Anfield in June for what was then a British record transfer fee when he completed a deal worth £116.5million.
Prior to Liverpool’s £125m capture of Alexander Isak on deadline day, Wirtz was the face of the club’s eventual £446m summer splurge.
The Reds secured a huge coup by fending off interest from Bayern and Manchester City, with the latter later pulling out of the race.
Wirtz’s father has since revealed that it was Arne Slot’s ideas of how his son would fit in that helped to convince him to choose Anfield.
However, the ex-Bayer Leverkusen star has already faced criticism that he’s been shoehorned into the team by Tony Cascarino.
Wirtz enjoyed an impressive debut for Liverpool as he assisted Hugo Ekitike’s goal against Crystal Palace in the Community Shield.
However, his struggles during his Eagles reunion over a month later underlined his issues, having yet to complete a full 90 minutes.
Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Palace was the earliest Wirtz has been hooked, with Liverpool a goal down and chasing an equaliser at the time.
Wirtz, who was benched for the Merseyside derby, is yet to score or assist in either the Premier League or Champions League.
Wirtz won’t be fazed by stats at Liverpool
The 22-year-old surprised many in his homeland by moving to England over remaining in the Bundesliga.
To the point that Bayern chief Karl-Heinz Rummenigge even claimed he’d have been ‘better off’ joining the club than Liverpool.
However, during an exclusive interview with talkSPORT.com, Brassell revealed Wirtz is no stranger to critics of his transfer decisions.
“He knew when he came to the Premier League that what’s happening now was a risk,” Brassell said. “He knew it was a possibility.
“I don’t think it will faze him because Wirtz has been through some really difficult stuff in his career so far.
“You go back to when he was a teenager, and he was in the youth system at FC Köln, and it became clear that he was going to go to Leverkusen.
“There was a lot of blowback, and he’s 16 going on 17 at the time.
“There’s an agreement that at least Köln thinks exists that they’ve got with Leverkusen because they’re 20 minutes down the road from each other, to not pinch star players from each other or not pinch young players from each other. And Leverkusen are flouting this, they think.
“Obviously, Wirtz is a kid and getting it from all angles; he’s getting stick from everywhere. And yet he still goes, you know what, I’m going to go through with this because Leverkusen is my ramp and this is my career path.”
Wirtz shares Haaland/Mbappe mentality – ‘Going to Bayern was not enough of a step’
Wirtz’s commitment to choosing the sporting challenge on offer at Leverkusen, and now Liverpool, falls in line with other young stars.
Similarly, Erling Haaland engineered a progression from Molde to Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund, and now City.
“If you look at someone like Haaland and how carefully curated his career is, I think Wirtz is in a similar vein,” Brassell added.
“He’s one of a generation of young players, like Kylian Mbappe, who know what his stages are.
“I think it was planned out to a certain extent. He made the move to Leverkusen at the right time.
“He decided, because of the way it went at Leverkusen, because I think he reacted to the situation and how well it went there, particularly in the last couple of years, that going to Bayern was not enough of a step. And I think it would have been easier for him in a way.
“Obviously, he’s injured at the moment, but the fact that he and Jamal Musiala get on very well, they worked very well as dual tens in Euro 2024 for the German national team, I think there was a pathway to it being smoother if he were to go to Bayern.
“There’s no doubt he’s taken a massive risk because it’s a World Cup year. He wants to be a starter for Germany.
“If you compare it to, say, look at Karim Benzema leaving Lyon in 2009 and going to Real Madrid.
“If he stayed at Lyon the extra year and he’s 20 at the time, not a completely different age profile and quite similar ones to Florian Wirtz, he’s in the 2010 World Cup squad. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. He cruises into it. But he goes to Real Madrid.
“He struggles to adapt. He’s not that worldly either. So it’s the off-the-pitch stuff as well.
“Then he doesn’t go to the World Cup after that really ordinary first year at Madrid.
“Now, obviously, it works out for Benzema down the line. He goes on to have a great career.
“But I think you look at that and it’s sometimes not acknowledged, maybe within England at least, what a risk Florian Wirtz has taken. But he’s taken that risk because he believes in himself.”
Why has Wirtz struggled, and when will he come good at Liverpool?
Wirtz, by his own admission, has struggled to get to grips with the Premier League pace and intensity.
The German international is also required to do considerably more work off the ball at Liverpool than he was required at Leverkusen.
As a result. Wirtz has lacked his usual explosiveness on the ball, having used up a lot of strength and energy elsewhere.
Brassell explained: “Now, look, I think there’s a load of different reasons why he’s not absolutely smashed it for Liverpool so far.
“I think a huge part of it is getting up to the physical level, because I remember Xabi Alonso saying to me when I spoke to him in the season that Leverkusen won the double.
“He said, basically, everyone’s got a role in the team. Everyone has duties that they have to fulfil, but Flo gets a little bit of a pass.
“So I [Alonso] trust him to interpret the role as best he wants, really. I trust his judgement on the pitch.
“He had Granit Xhaka at the time, Robert Andrich, and Exequiel Palacios to do the running for him and cover that.
“I think it’s unrealistic to expect that to be your role in the Premier League.
“There needs to be a little bit more. He needs to be a bit more athletic. He needs to do more off the ball.
“That is an incredibly steep climb. Now, bear in mind, when he came back from his ACL injury at Leverkusen, it took him a long time to recover.
“It was 10 months between when he got injured and when he played again.
“It took him another couple to actually properly start playing really, really well again.
“So if you’re looking at a sort of graph of physical improvement, for Wirtz to get from where he was when he arrived to the point that Liverpool needs him to get, it’s going to take a while.
“What he has got on his side is the fact that A, they’ve been winning, and B, they’re in a position where he doesn’t have to play every single game, and they’ve got a great bench, and they can take a bit of the pressure off him.
“But in terms of his talent, in terms of his mentality, I’ve got absolutely no doubt over any of that.
“If Bayern are sort of saying, well, you know, we told you it wouldn’t happen – I don’t think there’s so much of the we told you so about it.
“They’re more, you turned us down? Do you know who we are? I think that’s more what they’re feeling at the moment and what they’ve felt off the back of the Nick Woltemade decision as well.”
