Liverpool head coach Arne Slott has revealed that Florian Wirths is undertaking a bulking program to better cope with the physical demands of the Premier League. Slott expressed his satisfaction with the German international’s recent performances as Liverpool aim to extend their unbeaten run to six games against Tottenham this weekend.
Wirths is yet to officially score in a league match, but he played a key role in the recent 1-1 draw with Sunderland, when his shot hit a defender and deflected into goal, setting up Nordi Mukiele’s own goal. The 22-year-old, who joined from Bayer Leverkusen for a record £116m in June, shone in the 2-0 wins against West Ham and Brighton.
Wirtz’s recent form shows a positive change from his early days at Liverpool, where he initially struggled with top-level strength. But Slott says the creative midfielder, who has reportedly gained more than 2.5kg of muscle mass through the program, is starting to find his stride in England.
“Going back to your question, I hope you’ve made it clear that you’re talking about players in general and not just new players (who have to adapt), but Florian has improved a lot. I’m not talking about his ability on the ball, because we knew from the beginning that it was at the top,” Slott explained.
“But against Brighton he took the ball from Dom (Szoboszlai), dribbled and I saw a player coming towards him for a split second, but he pushed him away and kept dribbling, and then he fed a cut-back cross to Hugo (Ekitike) and his shot went over the bar.
“Then he won a duel with (Brighton’s) Jan Paul van Hecke and got a shot from Mo (Salah) that led to the counterattack. You could see in that moment that it was getting easier for him.”
“It takes a lot, a lot of effort for him to play at this intensity, but he’s getting used to it. That’s my take.”
“[Fitness and weight]both work. A lot of them are gaining weight and gaining muscle. That’s one thing.”
“And secondly, you can’t prepare for 90 minutes of Premier League football just by being in the gym. The important thing is to play games, I’d like to say we train, but we don’t do much of that, so we play, play, play.”
“The only way to make these players better is to play with them, and I’ve been playing with them during the season, when normally it would be preseason.
“The only way to make Florian, Macca (Alexis Mac Allister), Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez stronger is to play them.
“Well, it’s a combination of things, but it’s also definitely about everyone getting stronger from training in the gym.”
