Arne Slot explains Florian Wirtz's behind-the-scenes transformation at Liverpool

Florian Wirt

Arne Slot has revealed how Florian Wirtz has undertaken a weight-gain programme in an effort to adapt to the Premier League's physicality.

And the Liverpool boss says he has been pleased with what he has seen from the Germany international in recent weeks as his side aim to make it six games unbeaten when they travel to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.

Wirtz has yet to officially open his account in the Premier League but played a big part in the own goal from Nordi Mukiele in the recent 1-1 draw with Sunderland with his shot taking a deflection off the defender before finding the net at Anfield.

The 22-year-old, who joined from Bayer Leverkusen for a then club-record £116m in June, also starred in the 2-0 win at West Ham United in late November and was impressive in the victory by the same scoreline over Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend.

The recent upturn has been an improvement on the early weeks of Wirtz's time at Liverpool, where he was struggling to adapt to the physical and intense nature of the top flight.

But the creative midfielder, who is thought to have packed on over 2.5 kilograms in muscle on the programme, is starting to find his feet in England, Slot says.

Slot

"To come back to your question, I hope I made it clear that I am talking not just about the new players (who have needed to adapt) but players in general, Florian has improved a lot,"

"I am not talking about his ability on the ball because we could see from the start that that was top.

"But I saw in one moment against Brighton where he took the ball off Dom (Szoboszlai), he dribbled and a player came to him and he pushed him away and kept on dribbling.

“Then he provided a cut back cross for Hugo [Ekitike] who shot over the bar.

"Later he won the duel with (Brighton's) Jan Paul van Hecke that led to the counter attack with the shot from Mo (Salah). In those moments you see it gets easier for him.

"It takes a lot, a lot, a lot of effort for him to play in this intensity but he is getting used to it. That is my take.

"Both (fitness and weight work). A lot of them have grown in kilograms, in muscle. That’s one thing.

"And secondly, if you are only in the gym you cannot be prepared for 90 minutes of Premier League football. It is about playing those games, I would say training but we hardly ever do that, so it’s playing, playing, playing.

“The only way to make these players better is by playing them. I have played players during the season when you would usually take pre-season for that.

"The only way to get Florian stronger, Macca (Alexis Mac Allister), Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez, is to play games.

"So yeah, it’s a combination of things but definitely also about the gym work where they all get stronger."

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