Former Manchester United star Dimitar Berbatov says Florian Wirtz will be “unbelievable” at Liverpool but may need to “have patience”.
Berbatov made the move from Bayer Leverkusen to Tottenham in 2006 but has admitted to “having doubts” after arriving in England and was contemplating whether he should return to Germany.
The former Bulgaria international went on to win the EFL Cup with Spurs before joining Manchester United two years later, where he became a two-time Premier League champion.
Wirtz made the same move from the Bundesliga to the Premier League in the summer, but has initially struggled to make an impact and is yet to score for his new club.
“I love him,” Berbatov told Rio Ferdinand on the Rio Meets podcast., external “He’s a fantastic player. He will be unbelievable, trust me.
“In my case, I was having doubts. The same process was happening when I arrived at Spurs as it was when I joined Leverkusen.
“In the beginning it didn’t work out quite well and I had to have patience.
“At Spurs – a new environment, new people, new language, new everything – things were taking slowly to happen to me and I was thinking: ‘Maybe I need to go back.’ That negative thinking was there.
“Then, at the same time when I was thinking like this, my other me was telling me: ‘You saw what happened in Leverkusen – just be patient, you deserve to be here, you wanted a change and to be here. Now be stubborn and work smart and hard.’
“I was motivating myself at the same time I was sabotaging myself. You want to go to your safe place but you need to have that motivation and ambition in you to overcome the fear.”
