Florian Wirtz 'unbelievable' claim as Liverpool sent strong transfer message - 'I guarantee you'

Former Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov has experience of the move Florian Wirtz has made from Bayer Leverkusen to the Premier League with Liverpool

Florian Wirtz and Liverpool have been urged to be patient with one another as the Germany international continues to get to grips with life in the Premier League. Wirtz was substituted during the closing stages of the 3-2 defeat at Brentford on Saturday after another under-par showing and has yet to complete a full 90 minutes in the top flight since arriving from Bayer Leverkusen for £116million in the summer.

It came just days after the 22-year-old had impressed in the 5-1 Champions League romp at Eintracht Frankfurt during which he assisted two goals.

But Wirtz has been backed to succeed by former Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov, who recalled his own problems when moving from Leverkusen to the Premier League after joining Tottenham Hotspur earlier in his career.

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"I love him," said Berbatov of Wirtz, speaking on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast. "He’s a fantastic player. He will be unbelievable, trust me.

"Hopefully, he will be patient. Hopefully, he’ll have good people around him, agent, family, whatever. Hopefully, the coach sees his quality like everybody sees him.

"I’m sure that everybody sees his quality, and they’ll give him that time that he needs to fit into the team. And I guarantee you, he’s going to be a success.

"The way he sees football, how he looks for the space, how he knows how to position himself, the touches on the ball, the improvisation, the eye for the pass and for the goals.

"Of course, someone can argue that his physique is not that great for the Premier League. But then you can easily see the great players of his position, like Modric, also the same build. Modric. F***ing monster. It’s unbelievable.

"So give him time. I think he’s going to be unbelievable for Liverpool."

Berbatov, who won the Premier League twice at United, joined Leverkusen from CSKA Sofia when just 19 before switching to Tottenham five years later.

And he has sympathy with the issues facing Wirtz at present. "The same process was happening when I went to Leverkusen," he said. "In the beginning, it didn’t work out quite well. I needed to be patient.

"In Spurs, again, new environment, again, new people, new language, new everything. Again, the things were taking slowly to happen for me. I was thinking, maybe I need to go back.

"But when I was thinking like this, then my other, not personality, but my other me, was telling me “No, no, no, no. You see what happened in Leverkusen. Just be patient. Keep working. You have the quality. You deserve to be here. You wanted something to change. Now you’re here. Now be stubborn. Be patient. Keep working. Not sitting. It’s not going to fall like this on your lap. Work. Smart or hard. Try to know when, which when, and work. And it will happen'.

"You basically want to go to your safe place, your safe environment. But you need to have that motivation and that ambition in you as well to overcome the fear. So my ambition was bigger than my fear."

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