Why Wirtz can follow Pires, Bergkamp and Silva rather than Veron

Sir Alex Ferguson’s press conferences were notorious for their adversarial nature but there is one that the writers who were there remember as especially volcanic and it involved the perception that a great foreign talent was struggling to adapt to the demands of the Premier League.

Juan Sebastian Veron, who had been signed by Manchester United from Lazio for £28million in the summer of 2001 amid great excitement, had been widely criticised by the media as United’s attempt to win a fourth successive league title in the Argentine’s first season fell apart.

‘He is a f***ing great player,’ Ferguson shouted at the media as he told them to get out of the training ground at Carrington in May 2002 in the wake of a Champions League semi-final defeat by Bayer Leverkusen, ‘and you’re all f***ing idiots.’

Twenty-three years later and another attempt by the reigning champions to defend their title is falling apart and Florian Wirtz, signed amid great excitement and rejoicing for £116m from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, has become the poster boy for Liverpool’s fall from grace.

Ferguson had felt that Veron was made a scapegoat for United’s problems. He suggested attitudes towards him were tainted by anti-Argentina sentiment. We have not yet reached that territory with Wirtz but the puzzlement about his struggle to adapt to the Premier League is turning to impatience.

Liverpool were demolished 3-0 by Manchester City on Sunday, they sit eighth in the table, they have lost more times already this season than they did in the entirety of last season and there is doubt crawling all over Wirtz. His name, when it is read out at Anfield, is met with polite applause rather than roars of approbation. Some are already writing him off as a flop.

History tells us that it is way too early for that. English football is full of examples of foreign players who struggled to adapt to the pace and physicality of our game, as Wirtz is doing, and went on to have stellar careers in the Premier League.

Jamie Carragher mentioned Mohamed Salah recently as someone who excelled from the start and if that is true of his Liverpool career, it is also true that Salah struggled terribly in his first foray into English football with Chelsea and had to rebuild his career with Roma. 

Robert Pires was damned as being too lightweight when he joined Arsenal and became one of the Premier League’s greatest foreign imports. The same is true of Dennis Bergkamp and of the man who many now consider to be Manchester City’s greatest ever player, David Silva.

Yes, Wirtz looks lost at the moment but he is only 22 and it has only been 11 league games. Yes, he looks like a gazelle trying to run in the middle of a herd of buffalo but it has only been 11 league games. Yes, as Gary Neville said in the wake of Liverpool’s humbling at the Etihad, he looks like a ‘little boy’ playing among men, but it has only been 11 league games.

Liverpool’s problems run far deeper than Wirtz anyway. Part of his problem is that he is trying to integrate into a side that lost most of its forward line in the summer and in which Salah also looks desperately out of touch. Most importantly of all, Liverpool are still a team in shock and mourning at the tragic death of Diogo Jota in the weeks before the season began.

Liverpool won the title convincingly last season but instead of the signings of Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike tightening their grip on the league, as was expected, their form has fallen off a cliff. It makes it more tempting for some to view Wirtz as the kid who broke up the band.

There was a moment in the first half of Liverpool’s defeat at the Gtech Community Stadium last month when the ball fell invitingly to Wirtz near the penalty spot in the Brentford area. Time seemed to slow down.

Everyone has been waiting for the moment when Wirtz sprouts wings and in that split second, it felt like this might be it. 

He hit the ball sweetly on the half-volley with his left foot and for another split second, the crowd waited for the net to bulge. Instead, the ball kissed the outside of the post and then smashed into the advertising hoardings. 

On the touchline, Arne Slot looked utterly crestfallen. He has looked utterly crestfallen many times this season but this felt different. He knew how desperately Wirtz needed a catalyst.

There have been isolated glimpses of the magic that lurks in Wirtz’s brain and his boots this season. An extravagant, beautifully executed flick to set up a chance for Salah at Chelsea in early October sticks out. But Salah curled the chance wide and Wirtz went back into his shell.

The sad truth about Wirtz’s Liverpool career so far is that that was the highlight. It was the only time he has looked confident. At least he was visible. For the majority of his time in English football, including his peripheral performance in the crushing defeat by City on Sunday, he has been close to anonymous.

His record in the Premier League reads no goals and no assists. There is a player in there fighting to get out. Everyone knows that. But that player can’t break free. He looks like a man who is trapped.

His lack of physicality is the most obvious obstacle to his progress. He wants too many touches on the ball. Confidence has deserted him. He is in a team struggling to come to terms with the fact that it has lost its dominance, with a manager who is dealing with adversity for the first time.

Trapped. Adrift. Bewildered. They are all words that fit Wirtz’s description this season. If I had to choose one above all others, though, it would be ‘lost’. I’m sure he does not want our sympathy but he looks like he has been dropped on another planet, a human playing football with cyborgs.

The same was true, sometimes, of Veron and Andriy Shevchenko, when he was at Chelsea. But it was also true of Pires, Bergkamp and Silva at first. Things change. Great players adapt and prosper. There is hope for Wirtz yet.