{"id":22508,"date":"2026-02-05T16:56:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T16:56:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:56:59","slug":"new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/","title":{"rendered":"New De Bruyne? Wirtz is starting to live up to the hype at Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

MANCHESTER, England (AP) \u2014 Florian Wirtz<\/span> It took a while for Liverpool to catch on. Now he is cooking.<\/p>\n

His six goals in 10 games put an end to fears that the German international would not be able to handle the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. It also highlighted the level of expectations and demand for immediate success for players in England’s top flight.<\/p>\n

Wirtz was in the spotlight from the moment he completed his big-money move from Bayer Leverkusen last summer. Rise to $156 million<\/span>. Manchester City, one of Europe’s hottest players, are also reportedly among his suitors.<\/p>\n

However, he chose Premier League champions Liverpool and became part of a great game. $500 million wasted<\/span> The Merseyside club rebuilt their title-winning attack with the addition of Wertz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike.<\/p>\n

Liverpool were tipped as favorites to win the title, but things haven’t gone according to manager Arne Slott’s plans.<\/p>\n

Liverpool go into Sunday’s game against City in eighth place in the table, 14 points behind leaders Arsenal. Their title defense collapsed long before Christmas, during which they suffered six losses in seven matches.<\/p>\n

Although Wirtz was not the main reason for that disastrous performance, his lack of influence was noted as he failed to score in his first 21 games with his new club.<\/p>\n

In October, Sky Sports pundit and Liverpool icon Jamie Carragher voiced his concerns.<\/p>\n

“We are talking about how long (time to settle down) we give foreign players when they come to the league,” he said. “But to be completely honest, from my experience with the players who came to the club when I was a player, if you think about the great foreign players… Sammy Hyipia, Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Luis Suarez, Didi Hamman… they all started working straight away when they came in. History doesn’t tell us that it takes a year to get a foreign player to come to England.”<\/p>\n

Carragher was adamant he had no intention of sacking Wirtz three months into the season, but his comments reflected the 22-year-old forward’s difficult start to life at Anfield and how underwhelming his performances have been in a Liverpool side looking for inspiration.<\/p>\n

A mitigating factor was the amount of changes made to Liverpool’s line-up with the addition of so many new players, and the instability it caused. It is also unclear how leaving his home country at such a young age and starting a new life overseas affected Wirtz, an often underestimated factor when it comes to international transfers.<\/p>\n

However, Carragher appears to have been right in his assertion that foreign players do not need more than a year to establish themselves.<\/p>\n

Wirtz’s first goal for Liverpool came at the end of December and he hasn’t looked back. In addition to scoring six goals, he also provided two assists during his period of dominance in Liverpool’s attack.<\/p>\n

His growing influence was on display in last week’s 4-1 win over Newcastle, when he twisted his way into the box to set up Ekitike’s goal and then scored himself.<\/p>\n

“He’s getting better all the time,” Carragher said this week, adding he resembled City great Kevin De Bruyne. “The Premier League lost Kevin De Bruyne. We got Florian Wirths.<\/p>\n

“Forget about the teams they play. We’re talking about a special player coming into our league.”<\/p>\n

The next test for Wirtz is Sunday’s game against City at Anfield. His form may have been too slow to save Liverpool’s title defence, but it provided a glimpse of what was to come this season.<\/p>\n

major matches<\/h2>\n

Man City’s trip to Anfield could be crucial to manager Josep Guardiola’s hopes of thoroughly defeating leaders Arsenal in the title race. Anfield has not been a happy hunting ground for City or Guardiola, with just one win in the last 23 visits. City trail Arsenal by six points and need to avoid widening the gap further.<\/p>\n

Manchester United host Tottenham on Saturday with a chance to continue their comeback with four consecutive wins under manager Michael Carrick.<\/p>\n

Featured players<\/h2>\n

Wirtz and Ekitike are showing signs of forming a deadly partnership. Meanwhile, City’s Erling Haaland has been in an unusual slump, scoring just two goals in his last 12 games. He never scored for City at Anfield.<\/p>\n

Activity suspended<\/h2>\n

City may also be without Bernardo Silva, who is suffering from a back injury. Anthony Gordon injured his hamstring in Newcastle’s English League Cup semi-final defeat to City on Wednesday. Bukayo Saka suffered an injury during Arsenal’s warm-up against Leeds last week and was forced off.<\/p>\n

off the field<\/h2>\n

Premier League matches from February 6th to 12th will be dedicated to ‘With Pride’ as part of LGBTQ+ History Month. The league says it wants to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in soccer and its efforts to make the game more inclusive.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

James Robson is https:\/\/x.com\/James Saran Robson<\/span><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANCHESTER, England (AP) \u2014 Florian Wirtz It took a while for Liverpool to catch on. Now he is cooking. His six goals in 10 games put an end to fears that the German international would not be able to handle the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. It also highlighted the level of expectations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"\nNew De Bruyne? Wirtz is starting to live up to the hype at Liverpool - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New De Bruyne? Wirtz is starting to live up to the hype at Liverpool - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MANCHESTER, England (AP) \u2014 Florian Wirtz It took a while for Liverpool to catch on. Now he is cooking. His six goals in 10 games put an end to fears that the German international would not be able to handle the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. It also highlighted the level of expectations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-05T16:56:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/\",\"name\":\"New De Bruyne? Wirtz is starting to live up to the hype at Liverpool - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/urlhttps3A2F2Fassets.apnews.com2Fb32F402F017fd3647c78dfc9153ceb9abc602F48ab03a583d645d88f0b8564c85ab259.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-05T16:56:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/urlhttps3A2F2Fassets.apnews.com2Fb32F402F017fd3647c78dfc9153ceb9abc602F48ab03a583d645d88f0b8564c85ab259.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/urlhttps3A2F2Fassets.apnews.com2Fb32F402F017fd3647c78dfc9153ceb9abc602F48ab03a583d645d88f0b8564c85ab259.jpeg\",\"width\":980,\"height\":653},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New De Bruyne? Wirtz is starting to live up to the hype at Liverpool\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\",\"name\":\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates\",\"description\":\"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. Get the latest EPL news, live match updates, transfer rumors, team analysis, fixtures, and exclusive insights for true football fans.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\",\"name\":\"admin_ok9yktt6\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3caa6e0fae133a2d8ebe213abde6eafe85769664d063c8ab6c7960c877d904ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3caa6e0fae133a2d8ebe213abde6eafe85769664d063c8ab6c7960c877d904ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin_ok9yktt6\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/author\/admin_ok9yktt6\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New De Bruyne? Wirtz is starting to live up to the hype at Liverpool - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New De Bruyne? Wirtz is starting to live up to the hype at Liverpool - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates","og_description":"MANCHESTER, England (AP) \u2014 Florian Wirtz It took a while for Liverpool to catch on. Now he is cooking. His six goals in 10 games put an end to fears that the German international would not be able to handle the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. It also highlighted the level of expectations","og_url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/","og_site_name":"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates","article_published_time":"2026-02-05T16:56:59+00:00","author":"admin_ok9yktt6","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin_ok9yktt6","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/","url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/","name":"New De Bruyne? Wirtz is starting to live up to the hype at Liverpool - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/urlhttps3A2F2Fassets.apnews.com2Fb32F402F017fd3647c78dfc9153ceb9abc602F48ab03a583d645d88f0b8564c85ab259.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-02-05T16:56:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/urlhttps3A2F2Fassets.apnews.com2Fb32F402F017fd3647c78dfc9153ceb9abc602F48ab03a583d645d88f0b8564c85ab259.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/urlhttps3A2F2Fassets.apnews.com2Fb32F402F017fd3647c78dfc9153ceb9abc602F48ab03a583d645d88f0b8564c85ab259.jpeg","width":980,"height":653},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/new-de-bruyne-wirtz-is-starting-to-live-up-to-the-hype-at-liverpool\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New De Bruyne? Wirtz is starting to live up to the hype at Liverpool"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/","name":"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates","description":"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. Get the latest EPL news, live match updates, transfer rumors, team analysis, fixtures, and exclusive insights for true football fans.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9","name":"admin_ok9yktt6","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3caa6e0fae133a2d8ebe213abde6eafe85769664d063c8ab6c7960c877d904ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3caa6e0fae133a2d8ebe213abde6eafe85769664d063c8ab6c7960c877d904ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin_ok9yktt6"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/eplvip.com"],"url":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/author\/admin_ok9yktt6\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}