Florian Wirtz has not exactly hit the ground running since moving in the summer.
The Reds had a tremendously successful summer on paper and looked as if they had built a team ready to dominate the league.
However, things are still yet to click and their title defence faces an uphill battle, with Wirtz just one of the players struggling to settle in.
The German has failed to show why he was brought in for £116m, with some starting to doubt him, although everyone back in his homeland seems to be adamant that he will come good.
One person who thinks that is Bayer Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro, although he has admitted that Liverpool was never Wirtz’s first choice this summer.
Florian Wirtz wanted to join Real Madrid, says Fernando Carro
When it was clear that there was a chance Wirtz could be tempted away from Leverkusen, many of the big clubs were desperate to sign him up.
The main ones were Liverpool, Man City, Bayern Munich and even Real Madrid, although the latter were the least interested of the four, it seemed.
However, CEO Carro has said that if the Spanish giants came in with an offer for the 22-year-old, he would have jumped at the chance to play for them, mainly because of Xabi Alonso.
“The Wirtz family and Florian knew that extending their contracts was our top priority,” he told Sport1.
“He’s someone who wants to win the Champions League. We thought that with this team we would have been able to go further than we did. He saw that we had won the German championship, but that winning the Champions League with Bayer Leverkusen might be more difficult.
“He would certainly have gone to Madrid if Xabi had made the offer. But Xabi has less say at Madrid than he does with us.
“One of Xabi Alonso’s great strengths was his ability to work with our scouting department to define who needed to be in our team.We were very cautious with salaries during the summer transfers.
“But we would have been prepared to make an exception for Florian, definitely in a range that Bayer Leverkusen has never seen before.
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“In the end, Florian decided for himself what he wanted to do. His parents are his advisors, and I think it’s good that they fully respect Florian’s wishes.”
Florian Wirtz can rub it in Real Madrid’s faces on Tuesday night
Whether this is true or not will probably never be known, however Wirtz can show his commitment to Liverpool by putting on a performance to remember.
Although he likely will not start this game, he can come off the bench to produce moments of magic, something the Reds might need given how tough the game is.
What he will need, though, is for his teammates to keep Liverpool in the game as long as possible so that he can come on and change it with a flick of a switch.
Wirtz’s start to life at Liverpool has not exactly gone the way he would have hoped, but if there is any game to turn it on, it is this one.
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