How Wirtz missed and then met Liverpool's big expectations
After a slow start to life at Anfield, £116m summer signing Florian Wirtz is starting to come to the fore.
With his move from Bayer Leverkusen having cost a staggering £116m, Florian Wirtz inevitably arrived at Liverpool this summer facing sky-high expectations.
But this wasn’t just a case of a sizeable transfer fee generating over-the-top excitement among fans, with the buzz about the player’s potential mirrored inside the walls of the AXA Training Centre.
There, staff had been blown away by Wirtz’s contributions to early training sessions during pre-season, believing his rare quality meant he was about to take the Premier League by storm.
Of course, midway through the German’s first season, it would be fair to say that it hasn’t quite played out that way.
The early signs were promising, with Wirtz registering an assist in the first game of the campaign - a Wembley defeat to Crystal Palace in the Community Shield.
But that would be his last goal contribution until two against Frankfurt in October, before a further drought until December followed.
Fortunately, the latter dry spell has been ended by a steady stream of output that has seen Wirtz post five goal contributions in his last six appearances, sparking fresh excitement over what is to come in the months and years ahead.
Liverpool’s recruitment staff never doubted this moment would arrive, with their faith in the player absolute given the extent of the background checks that went into identifying him as a signing worth breaking the bank for.
And, though their research was less exhaustive, the belief of supporters never wavered either, largely because they could always see Wirtz’s quality even if it only came in fits and starts in his early days at Anfield.
The harshest criticisms have largely come from the outside, where mitigation such as a dysfunctional team and the difficulty of adapting from the Bundesliga were ignored in favour of snappy broadsides.
Still, Wirtz wasn’t content to simply allow time to fix all his issues, instead closely following a personalised gym routine provided by fitness staff to ensure he was better prepared for the demands of the Premier League.
The 22-year-old has added 2.5kg of muscle since the start of the campaign, and it is clear that is having a positive effect on his ability to cope with the league’s physicality.
Recent games have seen him ride challenges far easier, allowing him to use his unique dribbling skills more regularly and create just enough space to get off shots and passes.
The end result is the aforementioned output, which the underlying numbers suggest has not come by chance.
