Liverpool summer signing Florian Wirtz’s displays may be suffering due to his hefty transfer fee, according to former Reds frontman Emile Heskey. The attacking midfielder has found it difficult to settle since his substantial switch to Anfield. Wirtz departed Bayer Leverkusen for Liverpool during the summer window for an overall package worth £116million.
Across his nine Premier League and Champions League appearances for the club thus far, he has yet to find the net or provide an assist. The midfielder found himself amongst the substitutes for the Premier League encounter against Chelsea prior to the international break. He entered the fray as a second-half replacement as Arne Slot’s side succumbed to a 2-1 defeat.
Wirtz has come under fire for his displays to date, though Heskey maintains that he requires additional time to acclimatise. The former England international also highlighted the burden of his transfer valuation.
“No matter how much a team spends on a player, they’re still going to need a little period of bedding in and it might be longer for some than others,” he told Pundit Arena. “When you look at Luis Suarez, he hit the ground running.
“But not every player’s like that. Wirtz is needing that bedding in, especially with the price tag because that will be in his head as well.”
Wirtz wasn’t the sole major summer signing during the transfer window, with striker Alexander Isak finalising a £125m switch from Newcastle United on deadline day.
Fellow attacker Hugo Ekitike also secured a move to Anfield during the summer, presenting Slot with something of a selection dilemma. There might be an answer, according to Heskey, though it comes with potential pitfalls.
“If you’re talking about out-and-out strikers, I’d rather have Isak starting than Ekitike because I’ve seen him do it before,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I think Ekitike has done fantastic and he’s got so much to give. I’d be interested to see if it could be done with two of them up front or one of them on the left drifting in with Kerkez coming and overlapping a little bit more.”
Ekitike has delivered impressive performances in attack following his £69m switch from Eintracht Frankfurt. Across his 10 outings in all competitions, he has found the net five times whilst contributing one assist.
Meanwhile, Isak has been working to regain full match sharpness after transfer speculation disrupted his pre-season preparations.
The forward is still searching for his first goal in five Premier League and Champions League matches, though he did break his duck for the club during the Carabao Cup victory over Southampton last month.
