Florian Wirtz has acknowledged a conversation with Liverpool manager Arne Slot after a measured opening to life in the Premier League. Wirtz provided an assist in the Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace but is still waiting for his first Premier League goal contribution. The 22-year-old has insisted he is not worried about his slow start.<\/p>\n
Speaking in an extended interview with Sky Germany, Wirtz described Slot\u2019s assessment of the issue. \u201cIt could be that I\u2019m trying to pass the ball faster,\u201d he said. \u201cI recently talked to the coach about it, and he suggested why I might not be able to get into the situations I normally get into. That is, that I\u2019m making the game fast with a dribble or a pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said it could be because we press a lot and I run a lot. For example, the running stats: I\u2019m always at the top there because I try to push hard and do what the coach asks. I need a lot of strength and energy for that. When I have the ball, I might be lacking a little bit. That it will simply come step by step, as I play more games, get fitter, be able to do things more easily, and then, when I have the ball, be fit enough and recovered enough to push hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move to Liverpool came after interest from Bayern Munich, who had publicly pursued Wirtz. Board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge commented on that transfer battle, saying, \u201cI have to honestly say, I still feel sorry for Florian Wirtz because I think the player would be better off at Bayern Munich than at Liverpool,\u201d and arguing that \u201cfinancial madness\u201d ultimately cost them his signature.<\/p>\n
Wirtz explained his own reasoning for joining Liverpool, focusing on the environment and the football project under Slot. \u201cI had in mind that Liverpool is a family-oriented club,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut of course, what convinced me most was the football aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot\u2019s suggestion that adaptation to the physical demands and high pressing could be affecting Wirtz\u2019s early output frames the manager and player as aligned on a gradual path to full impact as fitness and rhythm return with time and matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arne Slot says Wirtz needs physical adaptation; Wirtz expects progress as fitness and rhythm improve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,969],"tags":[1081,299,1019],"class_list":["post-3098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-adaptation","tag-arne-slot","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}