‘Have to Accept It’—Florian Wirtz Reacts to Long Overdue First Liverpool Goal

It was a moment manager Arne Slot had seen coming for a number of weeks.

Florian Wirtz had to wait a long time to make his mark. / Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

Florian Wirtz said he never lost confidence that he would break his goalscoring duck for Liverpool after he scored the winner in Saturday’s narrow 2–1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The German became British football’s most expensive player when Liverpool agreed to pay former Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen up to £116 million ($157.8 million) for Wirtz, though he quickly lost that particular crown as £125 million was then forked out on Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak.

Unfortunately for Liverpool, and for Wirtz and Isak, both have endured challenging starts to life at Anfield. For 22-year-old Wirtz, getting up to speed with the pace and physicality of the Premier League has been difficult, with the attacking midfielder unable to get on the ball and dictate play like he did so freely in Germany.

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Liverpool manager Arne Slot resorted to playing Wirtz on the left, hoping he could make an impact drifting in from the touchline, but he was eventually forced to drop the German after he showed no sign of early improvement.

But a noticeable improvement over Liverpool’s last few games led to Wirtz breaking his duck against the Premier League’s bottom side Wolves—although his strike to put the champions 2–0 up did not open the floodgates as expected and instead the Old Gold fought back to make Liverpool work hard for their three points.

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Wirtz: I Had to Accept Tough Start and Believe

Wirtz (second left) was pleased to get off the mark. / Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

“It was very nice, the feeling on the pitch with the fans around,” Wirtz said in a postmatch interview. “I was very happy and I am still, I like it. I was confident that I would score one day but of course I wanted to start scoring and assisting earlier. It was like this, I have to accept it, but I just knew it will come.”

“We played a brilliant first half and I think everyone was working really hard,” he continued of Liverpool’s overall display. “Then in the second half, the last 25 minutes we made it ourselves difficult. I cannot explain why but we have to talk about this at training. We have to change this.

“This is the way we want to do it. We want to be there, on top of the table. It’s not been easy start but in the last games we're doing better and better. We’re trying to win every game.”

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Slot: I Could Feel Wirtz’s Relief at First Goal

Arne Slot’s big-money signing is coming good. / Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images

Wirtz’s goal came just 89 seconds after Ryan Gravenberch had opened the scoring, and their strikes extended Liverpool’s unbeaten run in the Premier League to six games—form that has got Slot’s side back into contention for a top-four finish after an unfathomable dip in results saw Liverpool lose six from seven between late-September and November.

There was understandable joy from Slot at Wirtz’s impact, who touched on his player’s recent uptick in overall performance levels and improved adaptation to the Premier League.

“I think I’m quite sure it was a relief for him, this I could see after his reaction after he scored the goal—and the same I saw with his teammates,” Slot said in his postmatch press conference. “I think they were really happy for him scoring his first goal because in football—rightly so, maybe—we mainly get judged on results and individuals mainly get judged on goals and assists. Sometimes we tend to forget what else there is to do during a game.

“I think he’s had multiple good games for us but I also feel he gets better and better every single game he is playing for us. He gets fitter and fitter and was getting closer and closer to his first goal. Then it was not a surprise to me that he scored one today, but he would probably be the first one to understand that one goal is not enough.

“He will score many more goals for us than only this one, but I also liked his performance during large parts of the game today. I think he was special in a lot of moments.”

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