Florian Wirtz explains what's changed for him at Liverpool and makes Man City argument

Florian Wirtz

Florian Wirtz says the hard work he has been putting in off the pitch is beginning to pay dividends on it as the Liverpool star refuses to be too downhearted by Sunday's defeat to Manchester City.

After being named as Liverpool's Standard Chartered Player of the Month for January, Wirtz - who scored five goals in the month - insists the Reds can take positives from the Anfield defeat to Pep Guardiola's men ahead of Wednesday night's trip to face Sunderland.

Wirtz told Liverpoolfc.com: "I think in the end, [it's] my personal opinion and maybe also a few others agree with me, it's that we didn't deserve to lose because we made a good game.

“Of course, in the first half we didn't have that much control, but we also didn't concede a lot of chances against us.”

"I think we made a quite good game, [won] a lot of duels, especially the second half was good from us. We put pressure on a top team, and I think that we can see that we are in the same [level] and that we compete with top teams.

"That's what we can take from the game and also [it] gives us [confidence] for the rest of the season [that] we know that we can hurt every team. Against Sunderland it's not an easy game now, but we just try to give everything again.