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Peter Crouch believes the international break will have helped Florian Wirtz as he continues to try to find his feet at Liverpool.
Wirtz has endured a slow start to life at Anfield since his blockbuster transfer from Bayer Leverkusen over the summer, but he showed his class in Germany's 6-0 win over Slovakia on Monday.
The 22-year-old assisted both of Leroy Sane's goals with a pair of brilliant passes, and former Liverpool star Peter Crouch hopes that his international exploits can help to kickstart Wirtz's Liverpool career.
“If I was ever struggling at club level, it was nice to go away to international breaks and have a reset, and I think that would’ve helped Wirtz," Crouch told Paddy Power.
'I hope he comes back to Liverpool with a fresh mindset. There’s no issue about his talent, it’s just a case of getting him on the ball and getting confident.
"When you play how Wirtz likes to play and you’re suffering with a lack of confidence, which he obviously is, you do struggle to get on the ball.
"He’s trying certain things in a game that are hard, so he will lose the ball. If you get down about that or are disheartened, then you’ll struggle as a player."
Unfortunately for Wirtz, he won't get the chance to continue his good form this weekend as he has been ruled out of Liverpool's meeting with Nottingham Forest through injury.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot revealed the bad news during a press conference on Friday, as he also confirmed that Conor Bradley is facing several weeks on the sidelines.
Andy Robertson missed training for personal reasons earlier in the week but should be back against Forest after training on Friday.
"Robbo [Andy Robertson] didn’t train [on Thursday] for private reasons, but he will be with us today," Slot said. "Alisson [Becker] trained last week and this week so he will be able to play tomorrow if things work out well today again.
"But we do have some issues after the international break unfortunately. Conor Bradley is unable to play [and] Florian Wirtz is unable to play. That’s far from ideal.
Slot added: "I don’t expect Conor to be part of the upcoming 22 days. Maybe in the end, but not in the [next] 22 days unless something like a miracle happens, which I don’t expect.
"Florian should be able to play after [Forest], it depends on what happens after, but that shouldn’t be that long.
"Jeremie [Frimpong] is out just as long. He’s not probably going to be available in the upcoming two or three weeks as well."
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