Liverpool Confirm Wirtz Deal | OneFootball

This is a big summer for Liverpool Football Club. The Reds won the title last season, which was an incredible achievement that few people saw coming. If they want to keep moving forward, though, then they need to ensure that they give Arne Slot the tools to succeed.

That will include making signings that fit the manager’s brief, which is something that should very much excite Liverpool fans if you bear in mind the fact that he won the Premier League using Jürgen Klopp’s squad. Having already signed Jeremie Frimpong, the Reds have now confirmed the arrival of another player in Florian Wirtz.  This is on the same day the club announced a fee had been agreed for Kerkez too, a strong showing of intent from the reds ahead of next season.

Who is Florian Wirtz?

Although his name has been bandied about all over the place in recent weeks once Liverpool were linked with him, it isn’t out of the realms of the possible that you might not know much about him. Florian Richard Wirtz was born in the German town of Pulheim on the third of May 2003. He joined his local side, SV Grün-Weiß Brauweiler, before being signed to the 1. FC Köln youth system in 2010. He remained there for a decade, learning his craft and soon being considered a big talent in the ranks of German football. In the January of 2020, he got a big move to Bayer Leverkusen.

The move to Leverkusen wasn’t without controversy, with Köln feeling as though the club had violated a gentleman’s agreement in place between the two clubs that said that they wouldn’t sign players from one another. As far as Leverkusen were concerned, however, it was a move worth making because of the obvious talent of the midfielder. He impressed with the Under-17s side, making his senior debut in an away match against Werder Bremen and overtaking Kai Havertz as Leverkusen’s youngest player ever to play in the Bundesliga, being 17-years-old and 15 days.

A Massive Coup For Liverpool

Make no mistake, the arrival of Florian Wirtz is a genuine coup for Liverpool and a statement of intent from the Reds. Bayern Munich had all but assumed that they were going to be able to take the attacking midfielder to the Allianz Arena, such is the extent to which the perennial German champions simply cherry-pick the best talent from across the rest of the top-flight in Germany. Even when news emerged of him having flown to England in order to discuss his future with a Premier League side, many assumed that it was Manchester City that the player was in discussions with.

Having spoken with the Cityzens already, however, Wirtz was not confident about moving there on account of the fact that he could be given no guarantees over the future of Pep Guardiola. It is also entirely possible that the player was also thinking about the 130 charges that the club are facing and any possible repercussions on that front. A conversation with Vincent Kompany at Bayern also left him unimpressed, whereas it was clear from a conversation with Slot that the Liverpool man had a plan for him. His signing is a huge declaration from the Reds that the future is in our hands.

What He’ll Bring to the Team

Wirtz is a magician on the ball. His ability to unlock defences may well prove crucial when Liverpool are looking to flat-track bully sides, on account of the fact that he will be able to pick the lock of deep-lying teams that hope to frustrate. His versatility will also be a big thing for the Reds when it comes to confusing and confounding opposition players, given the fact that he can work as an inverted winger or even as a false nine. Boasting incredible technique, he can find solutions to problems presented by other teams and will take the burden of creativity away from Mo Salah.

He is a player that has a real sense of where he is on the pitch at all times, which allows him to pick the right pass or put in a clever cross, to say nothing of the fact that he poses a huge threat himself. Perhaps more importantly, at least as far as the manager is concerned, is the fact that his off-the-ball work rate is just as important a part of his game. He covers a huge amount of ground, which means that the defence can depend on him to work with them. There is a reason why the club has decided to smash its transfer record with the £100 million plus £16 million in add-ons move.