'He's unbelievable': Arne Slot told he might just have the next Luka Modric in his Liverpool squad
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Liverpool have been on the receiving end of some brilliance from Real Madrid legend Luka Modric over recent years.
Modric and his Madrid teammates beat the Reds in two Champions League finals since 2018, also knocking them out of the competition on a further two occasions in the meantime.
As a result, Liverpool fans may not be as enamoured with the Croat as the rest of the world seems to be.
Modric made some poor comments about Mohamed Salah after the 2022 Champions League final which should also not be forgotten around Anfield.
Nevertheless, there is little denying that the midfielder was – and arguably still is – a master of his craft.
Liverpool have had some brilliant midfielders of their own over the years, but they’ve never really had someone in the ilk of Modric.
According to former England international David Bentley, though, they may now have found that player.
Photo by Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images
Modric is not a unique footballer, but he arguably plays the silky midfielder better than anyone in the past decade or so.
Although they are not necessarily comparable in terms of position, Bentley says he sees something of Modric in the way Florian Wirtz plays the game.
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“He’s unbelievable,” the former Arsenal winger told TalkSPORT.
“He’s got the Modric feel about him.
Movement and touch for the ball.”
“A player like that, a player who plays that role within the team, they’re harder to accommodate because everything has to be pushed through them and the players have to get used to him being in the team.
“But the way the guy performs and the way he plays football, once he finds his feet and he settles in,” Bentley adds.
Although Wirtz is more attack-minded than Modric ever was, the two players hold a similar balance and technique.
Given all he went on to achieve with Real Madrid, it is easy to forget that Modric had a nightmare start after joining them from Tottenham in 2012.
The Croatia international was named as the worst signing of the season in La Liga and looked out of his depth at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Although it is too early to say the same about his start at Liverpool, it is fair to say that Wirtz has not been as good as many expected since joining from Bayer Leverkusen.
If Modric is an example to go off, though, then Liverpool fans need only be patient with their new maestro.