What Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz could learn from David Silva’s first steps in English football

Even Pep Guardiola doubted it would work.

The Premier League, he reasoned, was not the most obvious destination for a young attacking midfielder who, though possessed of silken technique and feted for his ability to create and score goals, was physically unimposing by the standards of the English top-flight. 

There was no doubting the quality of a player noted for his close control, intelligent movement and ability to find a killer pass – indeed, Guardiola, who was Barcelona manager at the time, had coveted the 24-year-old’s services himself – but David Silva was a very different player to the likes of Steven Gerrard, Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira.

Almost a decade later, Guardiola was only too glad to have been proved wrong. 

“I didn’t think he would be as big a success, because he is a technical player,” Guardiola said of Silva in 2019. “He’s not box-to-box, and my image of English football before I came here was maybe that he was going to suffer. I’m happy that my first impression has been proved wrong.”

For David Silva at Manchester City, read Florian Wirtz at Liverpool

Those words ought to afford Florian Wirtz a measure of comfort as he struggles to adapt to the demands of a different country, league and style of play. 

Like Silva in the summer of 2010, the Germany international arrived in the north-west with a big reputation and a price tag to match following his £116m summer move from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool. 

Like the Spaniard, who ignored covetous glances from Barcelona and Real Madrid to join City, Wirtz turned down a domestic powerhouse- in his case, Bayern Munich – to come to England; and, like Silva, he has struggled in his early weeks in the job.

Wirtz could be forgiven for hoping that the parallels do not stop there. The tide turned for Silva when he scored his first goal for City in a 3-2 win at Blackpool. It took hard graft, determination and a strong mentality to reach that point.

What did David Silva say about adjusting to the Premier League?

“When I came here, I realised how tough this league was,” Silva would later reflect. “It was physically strong, so I had to get fit. I think it was about two months, and then I scored the Blackpool goal and my confidence increased.

“It changed me inside because, when I scored that goal, my body relaxed and then I could enjoy playing football more and I was better physically. That was the point when I started going up.

“There were some tough times, because you wake up and you don’t see the sun, but you get used to it. The problem here is that we have so many games during the winter, but again, you have to get used to it. You have to take more care of your body, to eat better and be healthy. If you take care of yourself more, you will give more.”

Silva was hardly the first player to require a period of adaptation after moving to the Premier League, yet he would leave a decade later with 77 goals from 436 appearances and a trophy haul that included four league titles, two FA Cup winners’ medals and five League Cup wins. His influence on the club, reflected in a statue erected in his honour outside the Etihad, was immeasurably greater.

Like Florian Wirtz, like David Silva?

Behind the scenes, Liverpool are confident Wirtz will likewise come good. He is regarded as the standout acquisition of the club’s £415m summer spending free, yet neither that nor a run of five wins from six league outings that has put Liverpool two points clear at the top of the table have absolved the German from scrutiny. 

Few have been more outspoken than club stalwart Jamie Carragher, who has acknowledged the challenges facing Wirtz but suggested he should be dropped from a Liverpool side that has become notably more open since his arrival.

What has Jamie Carragher said about Florian Wirtz?

“The balance of the team is not right, and the obvious one that stands out is Florian Wirtz, who is just not at the races at all,” Carragher, who has suggested Liverpool are “playing basketball” rather than football, told CBS Sports. 

“He’s a young boy, coming to a new league, and has plenty of time to go. But right now, he needs to come out of the team.”

The Silva precedent would suggest Carragher has a point. While Wirtz has started all but one of Liverpool’s first six league fixtures, Roberto Mancini, Silva’s first manager at the Etihad, took a more cautious approach to the Spaniard’s introduction. 

How did Manchester City handle David Silva’s introduction to English football?

Handed his debut in City’s Premier League opener against Tottenham on 14 August 2010, Silva was benched for the games against Sunderland, Liverpool and Blackburn that followed. It was another month before he returned to league combat, with Mancini stressing the need to assimilate the playmaker gradually. 

“I always said that he would need time because it is very different here than playing in Spain,” said Mancini, whose selection decisions were also a nod to the form of other wide players, most notably James Milner and Adam Johnson.

In similar fashion, Arne Slot, the Liverpool manager, has acknowledged the hurdles Wirtz must overcome in adapting to his altered circumstances.

What has Liverpool boss Arne Slot said about Florian Wirtz’s struggles?      

“You need a bit of time to adjust,” Slot said after last month’s 3-2 Champions League win over Atlético Madrid. “We all know how much quality he has, but sometimes people forget that he is a 22-year-old that goes, for the first time, abroad. 

“Your whole life is changing. All the things that are normal to you are not normal any more, because everything is different, and that sometimes costs energy as well. Combine that with going to a new club, a new playing style, because Leverkusen played 3-4-3 and we play 4-3-3, and so we ask a bit more from him off the ball and defensively. 

“But I can see him growing more and more, and I think that is what you can expect from a quality player, who always adjusts to what he needs. He and the team will get better and better.”

Results since that night point to the opposite, however, with Liverpool suffering their first league defeat of the season in an abject performance last weekend at Crystal Palace before coming unstuck at Galatasaray on Tuesday night in the Champions League.

What’s next for Liverpool and Florian Wirtz?

With another tough away day looming this weekend, when Liverpool travel to Chelsea, the need to steady the ship quickly is obvious. A statement performance from Wirtz would undoubtedly help but, with Slot’s forward line in transition following a summer of tragedy and upheaval at Anfield, the German is not alone in struggling to find his feet. 

Rather than fitting seamlessly into a side still on a high after last season’s Premier League victory, Wirtz finds himself in a dressing room stricken with grief following the death of Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva in a July car accident. 

Luis Díaz, a key figure who contributed 17 goals last term, has departed for Bayern Munich, while Darwin Núñez is now plying his trade in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Hilal. Meanwhile, Alexander Isak is yet to reach full fitness following his controversial move from Newcastle. 

Among the new attacking arrivals, only Hugo Ekitike has hit the ground running. Despite a haul of five goals in 10 appearances, however, even the Frenchman has had teething troubles, earning a foolish suspension for removing his shirt in a League Cup win over Southampton that saw him sidelined for the trip to Palace.

How Florian Wirtz’s arrival altered the balance of Slot’s team

Wirtz’s deployment in a position previously occupied by Dominik Szoboszlai, who offers a physicality and defensive nous the German cannot, has further disturbed the rhythm of the team. The Hungary international’s outstanding form this season, even when deployed as an ersatz right-back, has only magnified scrutiny of Wirtz, who has inevitably suffered by comparison. 

If Liverpool are to protect their slender lead at the top of the Premier League, they are likely to need a win at Chelsea this weekend. Assuming he starts, the pressure will again be on Liverpool’s expensively acquired playmaker to deliver.

Wirtz has insisted his best form will come, and Stamford Bridge would be a good place to start. As Silva can attest, a first goal could work wonders.