Liverpool manager Arne Slot has urged record signing Florian Wirtz to reach the standards set by club talisman Mohamed Salah, besides Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, to realise the expectations of the fans as well as the club. “Why are Messi, Ronaldo and Mo so highly regarded? Because they are always fit. Every single game they are fit and that is something that Florian first has to show in a league like ours,” he said.
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Asserting that his integration went smoothly, Slot said he was positive of the 116m pound signing repaying the club’s faith. “He is a different profile to what we have. That is what we wanted – to bring a different profile in rather than adding something that we already had. It is very positive that we could bring in such a highly regarded player, but Liverpool has always been able to bring in these kinds of players.”
He said he would provide the value for the money spent. “Liverpool have done this before,” he said. “With Alisson Becker we spent so much money, with Virgil we spent so much money, and with inflation I think it is the [level of] Liverpool signing. We mainly make these signings. But we also sell players. If we make these signings, we also have to sell players,” he pointed out.
He was asked whether Wirtz was a signing to take Liverpool to the next level. “That is something I can only answer in the upcoming years,” he said. “Everything we expect is very positive, but between expecting and realising something is different,” he added.
Though only 22, Slot says he is experienced enough. “He might be young, but he’s already won a lot, so I don’t think we can see him as a young player. “He won the league in Germany, won the cup, played for his country numerous times, and apart from that, his mentality is maybe his biggest strength. That says a lot because if you see him play you’re like, ‘are you serious?’, because he’s so creative. He doesn’t get distracted at all by a transfer fee or anything else – good players always find a way to play well in good teams,” he explained.
The system he had played under Xabi Alonso in Bayer Leverkusen was not much different, he said. “On the training ground and in videos, he needs help to understand the way we want to play, and that’s not 180 degrees different from Xabi Alonso. The system is different, but we want to be intense and Alonso wants to be intense. He liked to dominate possession and tried to bring him in positions that we wanted to try and bring him in. But it’s true he has to adjust to England – to the league, to the intensity and his new teammates – but if you saw the games, his adjustment went quite well,” he said.
He showed flashes of his technical and creative qualities against Crystal Palace in the Community Shield. The fans would hope there is more to come in the opening league fixture against Bournemouth and beyond.
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