Florian Wirtz's subtle response after Liverpool criticism and scathing Gary Neville comments
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Wirtz chose American rapper Gunna's track 'Made For This S***', appearing to address the intense pressure surrounding his £116million move from Bayer Leverkusen.Since his Premier League arrival, Wirtz had displayed flashes of brilliance but faced criticism over his end product and adaptation to the speed and strength of the new league. Ibrahima Konate responded with a face with zipped mouth emoji, potentially a deliberate nod to the scrutiny faced by the £116m star.Reflecting on the victory, he said: "It was very nice, the feeling on the pitch with the fans around, I was very happy."I was confident that I would score one day, I wanted to start scoring and assisting earlier but it was like this, I have to accept it but I just knew that it would come and I had to keep going."Wirtz's maiden goal arrives just weeks after he contributed significantly to Liverpool's leveller against Sunderland.The Bundesliga champion's strike took a deflection before finding the net against the Black Cats at the start of the Reds' current unbeaten streak, which now stands at six Premier League fixtures - seven across all competitions - though it was officially recorded as an own goal due to the deflection.In their most recent outing, Wirtz set up Alexander Isak's opening goal against Tottenham Hotspur, finally registering his first Premier League assist after previously claiming two in the Champions League.Gary Neville has been among those to question the playmaker's impact since arriving at Liverpool.The former Manchester United defender was especially scathing of Wirtz after the 3-0 hammering by Manchester City in November, suggesting the German appeared out of his depth against Pep Guardiola's outfit, looking "like a little boy" and labelling him as an issue.He said: "I thought Wirtz in particular - it was a really bad day for him.
We've been tip-toeing around him haven't we, for a few months, around the fact that he's young, coming to a new country."But he's £120million, you're going to have to stand up soon. I mean he's obviously got something."He's a really good player and technically fantastic, but he's been mauled out there today by [Matheus] Nunes and by others.
He's £120m and he looked like a little boy out there. He's a German international of great standing and he looks well short of what you'd expect from a top physical match."They've got to get him up to speed and get that tenacity into him that means he can get into form.