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Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso has compared Turkish talent Arda Guler to Liverpool ace Florian Wirtz after he starred for Los Blancos in their Champions League win over Juventus this week.
Guler, 20, started for Real Madrid at the Bernabeu and continued his good start to the season. England star Jude Bellingham scored the only goal of the game, with Alonso's side next in Champions League action at Anfield against Liverpool.
Alonso and Wirtz, of course, worked alongside each other at Bayer Leverkusen before Liverpool bought the German playmaker for a fee that could reach $157 million (£116 million), including add-ons, this summer.
"Arda Guler enjoys playing," Alonso said after Real Madrid's victory. "It’s the same as when I had Florian Wirtz; he loves playing."
This week, Wirtz took a potentially huge step forward in his Liverpool career by assisting two goals in a 5-1 rout against Eintracht Frankfurt.
The German has done well this season in patches but is still getting himself up to speed with the English game. However, the two assists should do wonders for his confidence.
That was certainly how Andy Robertson was feeling after seeing Wirtz impress in his homeland.
The Scotland captain believes some of the verdicts being offered on Wirtz so far since the Germany playmaker's transfer move to Anfield have been "unfair".
"I thought he was outstanding; excellent," Robertson told reporters in Germany, including from the Liverpool ECHO, after the Reds won 5-1 at the Deutsche Bank Park stadium and the 22-year-old got his first couple of assists.
"I thought he grew and grew into the game, especially the second half.
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"The players around him helped him a lot. Curtis Jones was outstanding, and I thought the three midfielders helped us gain the momentum and keep the ball.
"Flo has been really good since he came here. People focus on the number of goals and assists, but at times, it's unfair as he's created a hell of a lot of chances.
"On Wednesday, some of the chances he created ended up as an assist. Hopefully, he can take a lot from this performance."
Liverpool.com says: Wirtz is a huge talent and it remains a matter of time before we see his best. Like Robertson said, he has been very unfortunate not to assist already in his Liverpool career, with Mohamed Salah's miss against Chelsea a good example of when the flicked pass into his path deserved to lead to a goal.
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