Florian Wirtz may not be shining at Liverpool yet, but the German media won’t be having any criticism of him.

That’s at least if the latest from SportBILD is anything to go by. They’ve come out fighting for him today, with a little help from Jan Ange Fjørtoft.

The newspaper explains how several German stars outside of the Bundesliga are ‘in crisis’ at this moment in time. Wirtz is at the top of that pile, with a slow start to his life at Liverpool following his big money move from Bayer Leverkusen this summer.

Liverpool are aware of this and shielding him from the criticism as much as possible. They know Wirtz is bothered by the talk about him. His current record of one assist in 10 games, something unprecedented for him, is weighing heavily.

Arne Slot has no doubts, speaking frequently with the midfielder. He’s got him as a pillar of his team and wants that known. Wirtz is key to his plans to change the team around.

SportBILD even try to apportion some of the blame to Mohamed Salah. They say if he’d scored the ‘mega chance’ against Chelsea, Wirtz’s record would look different. In fact, it’s...