Former Premier League striker can “guarantee” the German will be a success
Dimitar Berbatov believes Liverpool’s new signing Florian Wirtz will come good despite a difficult start to life in England, and has therefore urged patience with the German.
The 22-year-old joined the Premier League champions in the summer from Bayer Leverkusen for a then Premier League-record £116m fee. But he has found the English game unforgiving.
Despite glimpses of his quality, Wirtz has yet to reproduce anything close to the creativity that made him one of Europe’s most coveted talents, with the physical aspect of his game a particular concern.
“I love him – he’s a fantastic player,” Berbatov said. “He will be unbelievable, trust me. “Hopefully he will be patient, and hopefully he’ll have good people around him – agent, family, whatever.
“Hopefully, the coach sees his quality like everybody sees him. I’m sure that everybody sees his quality, and they’ll give him that time he needs to fit into the team. And I guarantee you, he’s going to be a success.”
Berbatov himself took time to adapt when moving from Leverkusen to Tottenham in 2006. He drew parallels between his own journey and Wirtz’s.
“In the beginning, it didn’t work out quite well,” said the Bulgarian. “I needed to be patient. New environment, new people, new language. Things were taking slowly to happen for me. I was thinking maybe I need to go back.
“But you need to have that motivation and that ambition in you to overcome the fear. My ambition was bigger than my fear.”
Wirtz’s adaptation has not been helped by the extensive changes that completely disrupted Liverpool’s rhythm. Full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold left for Real Madrid and his forward passing ability has been missed. Andy Robertson was unceremoniously dumped for new left-back signing Milos Kerkez.
The experienced Luis Diaz departed in the summer and Alexis Mac Allister has missed several games due to fitness issues. However, Berbatov believes Wirtz’s intelligence and technical skill will eventually shine through.
Berbatov said: “The way he sees football, how he looks for the space, how he knows how to position himself, the touches on the ball, the improvisation, the eye for the pass and for the goals – of course, someone can argue that his physique is not that great for the Premier League.
“But then you can easily see great players of his position, like Modric, also the same build. Modric, f***ing monster, he’s unbelievable. So give him time.”
