The subtle qualities of Florian Wirtz ready to help Liverpool evolve | OneFootball

The £100m man isn’t thinking about being the £100m man. Although, should he and Liverpool achieve the success together that they hope they will, he will become the £116m man and – as things stand anyway – not merely the club record signing but the British record. Perhaps it helped him adjust to a world of sizeable, seismic fees when Bayer Leverkusen put a €150m (£130.3m) price on him Liverpool negotiated them down a bit, but the fee was still one to dwell upon. But not for Florian Wirtz.

“I don’t think about it,” he said. “I just want to play football and how much money the clubs pay between each other, it doesn’t matter.” No pressure there, then. Or none that he puts on himself. It may be, of course, that the German only spends a few weeks as the biggest buy in Liverpool’s history. They have already bid £110m for Alexander Isak, even if they have a reluctance to increase it after a swift rebuttal.

A saga may deflect some attention from a signing who ought to lend plenty of excitement in his own right. Wirtz had played at Anfield in Leverkusen’s colours, losing 4-0 in the Champions League last season. He enjoyed a first game in Liverpool’s red rather more, a 3-2 win over Athletic Bilbao on Monday.

Nor did he have to spend too much time pondering a striker who might arrive. Not when he operated behind one who already has. Hugo Ekitike is another of the Bundesliga all-stars. Wirtz had faced the Frenchman, who could cost £79m. Now he is charged with supplying him.

“He is a really good player,” he said. “It was a joy to watch him at [Eintracht] Frankfurt and I was really happy he signed to come to us. In the training sessions already he went well and also in the game we had some combinations that were good.”

And Wirtz has been bought to combine; to create too. “I will try to find the right places to be and the right spaces to get the ball and to be dangerous and create chances,” he said. His duties include being the creator-in-chief. As Arne Slot noted after the victory over Athletic, Liverpool have lost Trent Alexander-Arnold’s creativity and while Wirtz operates in a different position, the German can compensate for the right-back’s departure with his own invention.

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Cody Gakpo celebrates scoring his team's third goal with Milos Kerkez and Florian Wirtz (Getty)

Wirtz can operate as a false nine or off the left, but Anfield’s first vision of him was as a No 10. He was selected there, but given a licence to roam. “I think I am a player who needs freedom on the pitch and the manager gives it to me,” he said. Wirtz has the permission to go where he thinks he can cause most damage; that he has recorded totals in double figures for both goals and assists in each of the last two Bundesliga seasons indicates he is capable of inflicting a lot, and in various ways.

Not every arrival from the Bundesliga has flourished in the Premier League, but Liverpool like to shop there. Jeremie Frimpong, Ekitike and Wirtz joined from German clubs this summer, Ibrahima Konate, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo in the recent past.

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Liverpool's Florian Wirtz in action against Athletic Bilbao (REUTERS)

Wirtz has plenty of teammates he could consult about switching divisions. “They tell me it’s more intense and more physical, every player is really strong, really fast,” he said.

“I am really looking forward to play [in the Premier League],” he added. “There are some differences to Germany but I think there are also some things I can learn to make me better.”

A slight figure, Wirtz make look an anomaly in the Premier League, surrounded by more strapping physiques. It is notable how quick Liverpool’s arrivals are. It was also instructive Wirtz referenced his own running power. “I just try to create chances and also work against the ball, so I can also run a lot, so bring this to the team and then with the ball I can make the team better and bring my teammates into better situations,” he said.

He proved he had conquered the Bundesliga, inspiring Leverkusen to their first league title in 2023-24, winning the division’s player-of-the-year award that season. He attracted interest this summer: from Real Madrid and Manchester City. Above all, from Bayern Munich. He chose Liverpool, in part because he could see himself in Slot’s side.

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Liverpool's Florian Wirtz in action with Athletic Bilbao's Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta (Action Images via Reuters)

“I came for that reason because I thought I could fit in this team,” he said. Sunday’s Community Shield against Crystal Palace will provide a first competitive game to test that theory but so far Liverpool like what they see.

And for Wirtz, the man unperturbed by that price tag, there is another kind of pressure. Liverpool won the Premier League without him, before a summer of vast spending. Now the expectation may be to do it again. “Of course, the big challenge is to win the title again,” added Wirtz. “And it is the most difficult thing.” But, once again, he sounded unworried.