Sir Kenny Dalglish has offered Florian Wirtz a pertinent piece of advice, as the two share a record only one other Liverpool player can claim.
Signing for £116 million, Wirtz broke the British transfer record as he moved from Bayer Leverkusen to Arne Slot‘s Reds, a record only two other Liverpool players have previously broken.
Stan Collymore can also claim the honour, signing from Nottingham Forest for £8.5m in 1995, but the more notable player to have broken the record is Kenny Dalglish.
With Kevin Keegan moving to Hamburg, also for a record exit fee, Dalglish signed from Celtic for £440,000 in the summer of 1977.
Asked about the pressures facing Wirtz, Dalglish told The Redmen TV and This Is Anfield: “I don’t know if he can expect the same as me. I came in the year after they’d won the European Cup as well.
“Kevin Keegan moved away. He asked to go and he moved to Hamburg. I only came in and tried to be myself. You’ve got a better chance of being yourself than trying to impersonate someone else.
“I think it’s the same for anybody that moves to the football club. If you move from one to another, just be yourself because that’s the reason why you’re there.
“They wouldn’t have picked you if you were something different.”
Despite the huge sum of money paid, Wirtz is still only 22 years old but comes with expectations of becoming the best attacking midfielder in the world, if he isn’t already.
Last season, he scored 16 goals and provided 15 assists for Leverkusen, following the previous campaign in which his team won the double and went unbeaten domestically.
“I’m sure he’ll approach them (new challenges) very positively,” Dalglish added.
“I mean I’ve not seen a great deal of him, but he comes with very good references and I’ll back Arne’s judgement.
“At the end of the day, obviously you can’t pre-empt anything, but hopefully there will be big smiles on everybody’s faces when it comes towards the end of the season.”
Due to Wirtz’s absence from action against Preston, supporters haven’t yet seen him play live for Liverpool. However, the behind-closed-doors friendly highlights, against Stoke, provided a glimpse at his calm but quick thinking around the box.
Since, the squad have flown out to Hong Kong, where they will face AC Milan on Saturday, a match in which Wirtz is expected to feature.
He is on the pre-season tour alongside fellow new arrivals Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, Giorgi Mamardashvili, Armin Pecsi and Freddie Woodman, with Hugo Ekitike also to join.
Asked if the trip is a good bonding exercise, Dalglish responded: “Yeah, it’s always good. I mean, when you sign, you’re obviously staying in a hotel; you’ve not even got a house.
“So I think they just need to get in and around each other, spend as much time as they can together, get to know each other, train with each other, the better it’s going to be for everybody. Not just the person who comes in but the people that you’re going to play with.
“They’ve got to understand what you are and you’ve got to understand them, and I don’t think that will be a problem for any of them because it’s a good squad of players that are there, off the pitch.”
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