German World Cup winner explains why Florian Wirtz is struggling at Liverpool | OneFootball

Florian Wirtz is “too good to fail” at Liverpool, according to the German World Cup winner Benedikt Howedes.

The £100m man is yet to score for Liverpool in 21 appearances after his club-record move from Bayer Leverkusen.

And while Wirtz has got two assists in the Champions League and one in the Community Shield, he is yet to create a Premier League goal. Liverpool manager Arne Slot left him out of the starting XI for big matches against Everton, Chelsea, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Inter Milan.

But Howedes, the left-back in the Germany team who won the World Cup in 2014, is convinced that Wirtz will be a success at Anfield.

“I would say he has so much quality, his mentality is so good and he will show how good he can be,” the former Schalke and Juventus defender said. “I am pretty sure he will show this in Liverpool in the second part of the season because he is too good to fail.”

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Florian Wirtz thought he’d scored against Sunderland but it was recorded as an own goal (Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Wirtz won the Bundesliga’s Player of the Year award in 2023-24 when Bayer Leverkusen became champions of Germany for the first time in their history.

And Howedes added: “Florian Wirtz was playing an outstanding role at Leverkusen. He was not only a player, he was the player, and he made so much fun last season in the Bundesliga.

“I was surprised a little bit that he was not able to show his best performance from the early beginning [at Liverpool] but he is still young, he is a young player, he is changing the country, changing the club for the first time in his life.

“He doesn’t have his family or his friends around to give him full support, he doesn’t have the players who knows what he is fully capable of and maybe he doesn’t feel the full trust from everyone; from the supporters, the club, the manager. Everyone fully trusted him at Leverkusen and now he has to improve himself step by step at Liverpool.

“But I am pretty sure he will show a better performance in the second half of the season and when you see it for the national team we need to get him back in his best performances to create something special in the World Cup.”