Former Bundesliga professional player Marek Mintál believes that German national team player Florian Wirtz still has much room for improvement after making his debut in a Liverpool shirt at the start of the season.
"The last time I saw Wirtz was in Liverpool’s 3-2 win over Newcastle, and he looked very passive then. That’s not his style, but it’s also part of his development process," the Bundesliga legend said.
However, according to Mintál, Wirtz cannot count on the team having much patience with him. Liverpool paid his former club Bayer Leverkusen a transfer fee of up to €150 million to sign Wirtz.
"Liverpool is not the same as Leverkusen. Nevertheless, with so much money involved, everyone expects these professional players to get to work and make an impact right away," the 48-year-old former player said. “Fans in England won’t give newly signed players enough time to establish themselves.”
Wirtz put in a poor performance against Newcastle, which also drew criticism from the British media. For example, one comment read: “Before he was substituted in the second half, I was just a passenger out there.”
To make matters worse, in the top-tier match against Arsenal last weekend – which Liverpool won 1-0 – Wirtz suffered a cramp in the final stages and had to be substituted again.
