“Otherwise you are already flattening the boy”

Ex-goalkeeper warns

“Otherwise you are already flattening the boy”

Florian Wirtz is not yet at the old performance level again after his spectacular change. Oliver Kahn warns against criticizing the player too hard.

Oliver Kahn does not see the start-up difficulties of soccer player Florian Wirtz at Liverpool FC. “When we start breaking the rod over such a great player, people, then something is going wrong, slowly,” said former national goalkeeper and captain of FC Bayern in the Sky program “Triple-The Hagedorn Football Talk”.

Kahn said that the ex-Leverkusen Wirtz (22) is already criticized due to the enormously high transfer of up to 150 million euros in England in England: “This is the hard professional business, and in the Premier League a completely different wind is just a different wind. But that’s good for its development.” So far, the 22-year-old Wirtz has been without a goal for the English champion.

Kahn (56) is very impressive that Wirtz accepted the challenge Premier League instead of switching to Bayern, who is also interested in the Bundesliga. “I always have great respect for players who say: I take the big step,” said Kahn. Conversion problems are normal: “He comes from the safe home of Leverkusen, where he was the hero, and suddenly he has to stand up everywhere and notices: ‘Hoppla, here everyone is as good as I or many are as good as I am.

Kahn does not believe that those responsible at Liverpool FC losing the patience with Wirtz so quickly. “I’m not buying a player of that age for so much money and then I will break it up,” he said, “they will give him a certain amount of time”. Borussia Dortmund’s ex-goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller also said that Wirtz will also appear in the coming games: “Otherwise you are already flattening the boy.”

Rudi Völler had commented similarly in the “picture”: “Florian shouldn’t be crazy. I have no concerns: he will show it to the English.” And further: “These are normal adaptation problems. Almost every professional has them. I have no doubt that he can make a breakthrough with his running and playful class,” said the world champion in 1990 and current sports director of the German Football Association.

Wirtz switched from Bayer Leverkusen to the traditional English club in summer for up to 150 million euros and has a contract there until mid -2030.