Florian Wirtz has been told clearly what to do by Dimitar Berbatov after a difficult first few months at Liverpool following his £116million move from Bayer Leverkusen
Dimitar Berbatov has compared Florian Wirtz to Luka Modric when assessing his challenging start to life at Liverpool. The former Tottenham and Manchester United striker endured some difficult spells when joining new clubs and he has called on those experiences when assessing what Wirtz must do next.
The Germany international kicked off the new season in Liverpool’s starting line-up for the first four Premier League matches, but was benched by Arne Slot after failing to make a significant impact on the scoreline. Since then, he’s been brought on as a substitute three times, but has started every Champions League match.
Despite not yet finding the back of the net for his new team, Wirtz provided two assists in Liverpool’s recent European clash against Eintracht Frankfurt. His performances have kept him in the spotlight, and he was a topic of discussion when Rio Ferdinand chatted with Berbatov on the Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channel.
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When asked about Wirtz, Berbatov said: “By the way, I love him. He’s a fantastic player. He will be unbelievable, trust me.”
The Bulgarian also revealed what he has seen from Wirtz that shows positive signs with an X-rated claim made in his verdict comparing the Liverpool man to his former Spurs teammate Modric. “Hopefully, he will be patient,” Berbatov said.
“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.”
Reflecting on his own career, Berbatov said: “In my case, I was again having doubts. The same process was happening when I went to Leverkusen. The same thing. Because in Leverkusen, in the beginning, it didn’t work out quite well. I needed to be patient.”
“But again, doubts. Now in Spurs, again, new environment, again, new people, new language, new everything. Again, the things were taking slowly to happen for me.
“And again, I was thinking, maybe I need to go back. You know, that negative thinking… Maybe I need to go back, or Leverkusen, or somewhere else. It’s not working here. But that negative thinking that people have most of the time, which is horrendous. It’s not a good way of doing.
“But then, at the same time, 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.
“So I was motivating myself. At the same time, I tried to sabotage myself. And 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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Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
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