Florian Wirtz returned to action for Liverpool on Sunday, helping the Reds to a 2-0 win away to West Ham.
Florian Wirths impressed for Liverpool after returning from injury in Sunday’s win over West Ham United. However, he has still been the subject of controversial comments from his former Bayern Munich fans.
The talented midfielder moved from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool for £116m last summer, rejecting interest from the likes of Bayern and Man City. But the 22-year-old has endured a slow start at Anfield in what has been a difficult season for the Reds so far.
Wirtz has made 17 appearances for Liverpool so far, but is yet to find the back of the net or contribute to a goal in the Premier League, although he is still getting accustomed to English football.
read more: The way Mohamed Salah was held back by his Liverpool team-mates after being dropped to the bench speaks volumes.
His performances have come under scrutiny and he has been slotted in and out of Arne Slott’s starting XI and used in a variety of positions, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Wirtz was a surprise starter against West Ham on Saturday after missing two games with a muscular injury. Still, he was one of Liverpool’s best performers, especially after returning to his desired number 10 position.
He is still waiting for his first Premier League goal contribution, but played a key role in Liverpool’s opening game at the London Stadium, replacing Kodi Gakpo and crossing for Alexander Isak to break the deadlock.
With this win, Liverpool bounced back from heavy defeats against Man City, Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven and moved up to eighth in the Premier League table.
Despite still losing nine of their last 13 games, it showed progress for the team in the slot.
But that didn’t stop Bayern Munich honorary president Uli Hoeness from taking sharp jabs at the Reds, expressing sympathy for Wirtz in rather patronizing terms for choosing Liverpool over the German giants.
Bayern, who signed Luis Diaz from the Reds during the summer, have had an excellent season so far, winning 18 of their 20 games in all competitions. Meanwhile, their only defeat came against Arsenal in the Champions League last week.
Speaking to a crowd of 10,000 at the “Power Day” rally at Munich’s Olympic Hall on Sunday night, Hoeness hailed Bayern as one of the world’s elite before targeting Liverpool and Wirths.
“This season we have proven that we can compete with the best teams,” he declared, as quoted by BILD. “We beat Chelsea, one of the best teams in the world.
“We won in Paris and deservedly lost against Arsenal, who are a great team. But I would already describe FC Bayern as one of the three to five best teams in the world.
“They (Liverpool) have spent half a billion euros and have had a disastrous season. In my opinion, it’s because they only have superstars. I always say that Liverpool will soon have to play with five balls, because their star players won’t give up a single ball.”
“Poor Florian Wirtz, he doesn’t even get the ball because Salah, Szoboszlai and the other players want to play with their ball.”
Bayern Munich were once the favorites to sign Wirtz, but Liverpool swooped in after Slott’s impressive pitching and secured his contract. Since then, Hoeneß’s latest rant was the latest in a series of scathing comments about the German and Liverpool from Bayern’s camp.
Despite Bayern having had a more successful season than Liverpool so far, these sour grapes suggest that Bayern are still wisely avoiding losing Wirtz to the Reds.
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