There are countless perspectives we could use to rave about Liverpool’s £116 million acquisition, Florian Wirtz, but an intriguing one comes from the adversary coach preparing to counter him this weekend.

“He is an outstanding player,” commented Everton’s manager, David Moyes, when questioned about Wirtz ahead of Saturday’s Merseyside derby. “He’s a fantastic addition to Liverpool and will develop into an extraordinary talent. People will soon realize that.”

‘He is a really, really talented footballer. I wish he was playing for me!’

Major European clubs like Manchester City, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid attempted to recruit him but came up short. His current manager, Arne Slot, has praised him as a potential global superstar. At just 22, Wirtz has transitioned from being Germany’s next big thing to an internationally recognized figure after securing his transfer to Liverpool.

Here’s the catch, though: since his move to Merseyside, Wirtz hasn’t quite lived up to his exalted billing.

Search his name online, and you’ll encounter mostly critical content. Fans of Liverpool’s domestic challengers and supporters of Bayern, who once seemed likely to sign him, are eagerly awaiting any opportunity for a bit of schadenfreude.

Wirtz has rapidly realized that playing for a club as enormous as Liverpool means every action is scrutinized. During his time with Bayer Leverkusen, if he had a subdued performance—which was rare—it could pass unnoticed. At Liverpool, a quiet match causes an uproar.

He’s not alone in facing such scrutiny. Milos Kerkez, a £40 million summer addition, was substituted 38 minutes into last weekend’s match to avoid disciplinary issues, and he’s faced criticism since. Similarly, Newcastle supporters took pleasure in the fact that Alexander Isak missed several shots narrowly in his debut for the Reds against Atletico Madrid in midweek.

Considering Liverpool have won five from five, those inside the building may laugh off any suggestions their signings have not settled yet, and ask any detractors to reserve their judgments for later in the season.

It is fair, though, to say we have not seen the best of Wirtz. This time last year, he had four goals and one assist for Leverkusen. In total he got to 31 goal involvements, having notched 38 the year before as his club won the Bundesliga and German Cup, unbeaten in domestic football. This year, he has zero goals and zero assists.

Sources put that down to fitness and the length of time it takes for new signings to adjust to the intensity of the Premier League. His former Leverkusen colleague, Jeremie Frimpong, has struggled with muscle injuries since making the same journey to Liverpool.

You don’t have to look far for other examples of Bundesliga stars taking time to accumulate – Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Jadon Sancho are just some of the stars who haven’t replicated their exploits in Germany on these shores, and closer to home Ryan Gravenberch took a year to get his feet under the table before blossoming into one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.

Liverpool’s fitness gurus have been putting Wirtz through his paces to bulk him up, so he is ready for the rough-and-tumble of English football after going through tough gym sessions that often involve giant medicine balls.

Slot was asked about this on Friday and said: ‘No, no, we do nothing differently with Wirtz than the others. But what is different for him is that he went to a new club where we probably do things a lot different on and off the pitch. So he needs to adapt.

‘Hugo (Ekitike, another big-money arrival from the Bundesliga) and Flo are used to playing three games a week – he needs to adapt because every single game is tough.

‘He gets better and better every single game. He always wants to have the ball, even if he has a few moments where we feel like he could do better. He just always wants to keep the ball, always keeps on trying. And he gets better and better, fitter and fitter.

‘That’s maybe the thing that matters most, because we don’t have to teach him how to play football. He just has to adapt to the intensity levels of the Premier League.’

A month before Wirtz signed for Liverpool, when it had become clear that he had chosen England over staying in Germany, Daily Mail Sport went out to Munich to talk to experts who had followed his journey and he was described to us as a ‘complete footballer’.

It is understood Virgil van Dijk spoke to Wirtz on the phone before his transfer but he did not need much persuading – Wirtz, plus his parents Hanz and Karin and his nine siblings, decided Liverpool was the place for him.

Manchester City had been firmly on the table at one point but he is said to have had reservations about how long Pep Guardiola would be at the club, while Bayern boss Vincent Kompany was rejected, politely, because Wirtz wanted to test himself in England.

Wirtz has acknowledged the difference in intensity of the Premier League already but, against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, he had his best game in a Liverpool shirt. 

He was getting on the ball more and doing what he does best: driving at opponents and exploiting gaps.

‘He can control the game and the rhythm,’ Maximilian Koch, chief reporter for the Abendzeitung newspaper in Germany, tells us. 

‘He reminds me of Andres Iniesta and Kevin De Bruyne, a very intelligent and creative player. He can also score and assist.’

Another German expert, Heiko Niedderer, who has worked at BILD for 20 years, adds: ‘He’s one of the best offensive players we have had. We have the two of them, Musiala and Wirtz. 

‘They are both pretty special but Wirtz is even more complete now. He can do everything.’

Wirtz is not said to be fazed by his big price tag, which is a base fee of £100m that will reach £116m only if Liverpool dominate both at home and in Europe for the entirety of his six-year contract.

In fact, it is used as a bit of a banter point inside the training ground. There are jokes about how, if he was signed now, £75m signing Van Dijk would have cost more than Wirtz and Isak due to inflation in the transfer market.

Aside from the on-pitch work, Wirtz has been described as a quiet, down-to-earth chap, purely focused on football. 

Part of his reasoning for coming to England was that he thought it would make him a better player, something he ran by national team boss Julian Nagelsmann.

His parents, who are his agents, help him stay grounded. Once when away on national team duty as a flourishing teenager, they paid for a teacher to attend the camp so he did not fall behind with his studies for the German equivalent of A-Levels.

Everyone you speak to believes Wirtz will soon set the Premier League alight, despite a perceived slow start, perhaps beginning with this weekend’s Merseyside derby. 

We started on a quote from rival boss Moyes, so here is another glowing reference from Slot to finish: ‘To say that he’s an artist doesn’t do him justice. He is an artist, but he can be mean as well.

‘Otherwise, you can’t reach the levels he has reached. He works incredibly hard to get better and better and better. He’s not going to hide.’