German national team manager Julian Nagelsmann says Florian Wirths is disappointed with Liverpool’s poor finish and poor form.
The national team head coach launched a shrewd defense of Wirths following criticism of the German star’s slow start to life at Liverpool since his £100m move from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer.
Asked about Wirtz’s performance this season, Nagelsmann said: “Liverpool can also help him by converting some of the chances he has created.” “For some reason they don’t like hitting the ball.”
The attacking midfielder was labeled a “problem” for Liverpool by Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville after an ineffective performance in Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City. “Wirtz looked like a boy. I was really concerned about his performance,” Neville added.
Wirtz was supposed to fuel the Premier League champions’ attack but is yet to register a goal or assist in 11 games in the top flight.
Florian Wirtz’s stats for Liverpool this season in the Premier League
But Nagelsmann jumped to his compatriot’s defense, saying the 22-year-old needs time to adapt to English football, but focused his criticism on Liverpool’s wider problems under manager Arne Slott this season.
“To be honest, the whole situation is not easy for Flo,” Nagelsmann said, referring to Liverpool’s seven defeats in their last 10 competitive matches.
“This year the whole club is not as stable as last year, it is much more difficult to integrate into the team.
“If you look at the game against (Manchester) City, they were actually the worst team throughout the whole 90 minutes.
“So it’s also difficult for Flow to have a big impact. Ultimately, in the overall situation, he just needs a little more time. That’s normal. You’ll see that with other players moving to the Premier League.”
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Premier League match highlights between Manchester City and Liverpool
Werts has created 16 chances in the Premier League, the 16th most of any player in the division. His expected assists are 1.19.
Nagelsmann believes Wirtz is still performing at a high level, even if he is currently “down in form.”
“We all know what he’s capable of and it’s very normal for a player his age to be a little off,” Nagelsmann said.
“You can’t expect him to perform at the same level three years in a row.
“Instead, we all need to support him a little bit and allow him to clear his head here. Then maybe Liverpool can also help him by scoring some of the chances he creates.”
“That’s one way of thinking about it, because he creates very few chances. It’s just that they’re somehow reluctant to put the ball into the shot. That’s part of the truth as well.”
Neville: Boylike Wirtz vs Man City
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes Wertz’s patience is running thin to deliver on his promise after having a “really bad day” in the heavy defeat against City, with the champions in eighth place after 11 games.
“Wurtz is a problem,” the Sky Sports pundit said on the Gary Neville Podcast.
“Let’s just say it like this. It’s a problem. He’s over £100 million. And to be fair, I said a few weeks ago that (Milos) Kerkes looked like a little boy out there. I thought Wirtz looked like a little boy out there today. That can’t be true.”
He added: “We’ve been tiptoeing towards him over the last few months because he’s young and coming to a new country, but he’s worth over £100m so he’ll have to step up quickly.”
“He obviously has something, he’s a really good player, he’s technically great, but he was hurt today by Matheus Nunez and the other players.
“I was really worried about his performance because he was getting thrown around on the pitch and didn’t perform well in terms of quality.”
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Roy Keane has reacted to Liverpool’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City.
Neville said Liverpool needed to find a way to get the best out of Wirtz, who has his sights set more on home in the Champions League since moving to Anfield.
Liverpool manager Arne Slott, who started using Wirtz in the center, has moved him back to his preferred left wing position in the last two games. He performed well against Real Madrid but returned to his shell at City.
“He’s a German international of great standing, but he looks quite short for what you would expect from a top-level physical game in the Premier League,” Neville added.
“They’ve got to get him up to speed, they’ve got to instill a little bit of tenacity in him and they’ve got to give him a little bit of something that means he starts to get back into shape, because what they have to do is stick with him and continue to be persistent.”
