Florian Wirtz has flattered to deceive since joining Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen but he has received some welcome advice from Dimitar Berbatov
Dimitar Berbatov has full confidence in Florian Wirtz to be a success for Liverpool(Image: (Photo by GSI/Icon Sport via Getty Images))
Former Premier League striker Dimitar Berbatov is backing Florian Wirtz to find success at Liverpool. The ex-Tottenham and Manchester United man has referenced his own career experiences as reasons to be patient with the £116million summer signing.
Wirtz started Liverpool’s first four Premier League games of the new campaign before being taken out of the team by Arne Slot after struggling to make a lasting impact in front of goal. He has since been used from the bench three times, but he has been deployed from the off for every Champions League game.
The Germany international is yet to score for his new club, but he did grab two assists in Liverpool’s latest European outing against Eintracht Frankfurt. As he is regularly in the headlines, Wirtz was one of the topics brought up by Rio Ferdinand during his chat with Berbatov on the Rio Ferdinand presents YouTube channel.
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OPINION
Theo Squires
Asked about Wirtz, Berbatov began: “By the way, I love him. He’s a fantastic player. He will be unbelievable, trust me.
“In my case, I was again having doubts. The same process was happening when I went to Leverkusen. The same thing. Because in Leverkusen, in the beginning, it didn’t work out quite well. I needed to be patient.
“But again, doubts. Now in Spurs, again, new environment, again, new people, new language, new everything. Again, the things were taking slowly to happen for me.
“And again, I was thinking, maybe I need to go back. You know, that negative thinking… Maybe I need to go back, or Leverkusen, or somewhere else. It’s not working here. But that negative thinking that people have most of the time, which is horrendous. It’s not a good way of doing.
“But then, at the same time, when I was thinking like this, then my other, not personality, but my other me, was telling me, ‘no, no, no, no. You see what happened in Leverkusen’.
“Just be patient. Keep working. You have the quality. You deserve to be here. You wanted something to change. Now you’re here. Now be stubborn. Be patient. Keep working. Not sitting. It’s not going to fall like this on your lap. Work. Smart or hard. Try to know when, which when, and work. And it will happen.
“So I was motivating myself. At the same time, I tried to sabotage myself. And you basically want to go to your safe place, your safe environment. But you need to have that motivation and that ambition in you as well to overcome the fear. So my ambition was bigger than my fear.”
Having gone into some detail about how he overcame his own struggles, Berbatov clearly sympathises with Wirtz, but he is certainly hopeful he will turn his fortunes round at Anfield.
(Image: (Photo by Javier Garcia/Shutterstock))
“Hopefully, he will be patient,” he said. “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 that he needs to fit into the team. And I guarantee you, he’s going to be a success.
“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 the great players of his position, like Modric, also the same build. Modric. F***ing monster. It’s unbelievable. So give him time. I think he’s going to be unbelievable for Liverpool.”
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