Wirtz: I'm not playing badly, it's just that my goals haven't come yet

Florian Wirtz remains unfazed despite his subdued start at Liverpool.

 "Yes, of course I would have liked to have already scored a goal or accumulated a few scorer points. But, no matter what anyone says, I stay calm," said the 22-year-old in a Sky interview.

He didn't want to constantly hear "give it time, give it time." Instead, he simply tried each time anew to make it better than before," Wirtz explained.

The national player had transferred from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool for up to 150 million euros in the summer. The first games did not go optimally. "Sometimes there are simply phases in which perhaps not everything goes your way; I actually haven't had that very often in my career. If I manage to get through it – that might sound harsh now, because I'm not playing badly, it's just that the scoring points aren't there yet – it will come at some point, and then everything will be fine," said Wirtz.

After the previous games, Wirtz had to endure some harsh criticism from the English media landscape. After his substitution in the Derby against Everton, the Liverpool Echo judged that he still had "problems with the pace of the game". TV expert and former Liverpool player Jason McAteer also delivered a rather scathing verdict on beIN SPORTS. "I don't think Wirtz is up to this challenge yet."