Arne Slot has said Florian Wirtz must reach the standards set by Mohamed Salah to realise Liverpool’s expectations of their new record signing.
Wirtz will make his Premier League debut when the champions open the season at home to Bournemouth on Friday. Slot said the Germany international’s “adjustment went better than expected, and we already expected a lot”, but admitted a more accurate gauge would take time.
Liverpool consider the 22-year-old a transformative signing in the mould of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson. Their head coach believes Wirtz can have a similar impact by following the example of Salah, who continues to set the standards at Liverpool and has scored nine goals in seven opening-day fixtures, a Premier League record.
Slot was asked whether Wirtz was a signing to take Liverpool to the next level. “That is something I can only answer in the upcoming years,” he said. “Everything we expect is very positive, but between expecting and realising something is different.
“Why are Messi and Ronaldo and Mo so highly regarded? Because they are always fit. Every single game they are fit and that is something that Florian first has to show in a league like ours. If he is able to stay fit then our fans will see great moments.”
Liverpool paid a club record £100m to sign the attacking midfielder from Bayer Leverkusen and he could cost a British record £116m with add-ons. Slot, however, denies Wirtz is a statement signing by the club, who beat Bayern Munich and Manchester City to his signature.
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“Liverpool have done this before,” he said. “With Alisson Becker we spent so much money, with Virgil we spent so much money, and with inflation I think it is the [level of] Liverpool signing. We mainly make these signings. But we also sell players. If we make these signings, we also have to sell players.
“He is a different profile to what we have. That is what we wanted – to bring a different profile in rather than adding something that we already had. It is very positive that we could bring in such a highly regarded player, but Liverpool has always been able to bring in these kinds of players.”
Liverpool’s summer spending will pass the £300m mark when the 18-year-old defender Giovanni Leoni joins from Parma for an initial £26m. The club also want to add Marc Guéhi and Alexander Isak.
On a summer of change at Anfield, Slot said: “I would have preferred Trent [Alexander-Arnold] to stay, but unfortunately he didn’t. Then you have to replace him. Then you have situations like Caoimhín Kelleher and Jarell Quansah. It is always hard for a player to have two or three seasons like this [not being a regular] in a row and if a player is not able to do this mentally then it is best to split ways and you have to replace.
“The Luís Diaz and Darwin Núñez situations are quite clear so then you have to replace. I think we did that really well. From the options we could get we got all the ones we would like to bring in.”
