Florian Wirtz was always going to face an uphill struggle when he arrived at Liverpool because his German experiences hadn’t prepared him for Premier League football. That’s the view of Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, who has put forward a considered theory regarding the £116million summer signing’s difficulties.

Wirtz has failed to make his mark since his move from Bayer Leverkusen during the summer, managing just three assists across 16 appearances thus far. The Germany international came with an outstanding reputation following two exceptional seasons in the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen, but that hasn’t carried over into regular performances at his new club.

Gary Neville has been amongst those to slam Wirtz, harshly labelling him as being “like a little boy” during Liverpool’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City before the international break.

Arne Slot has struggled to identify the optimal role for the playmaker within his 4-3-3 system, whilst a slight injury ruled him out of Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

Speaking on Sky Sports before Arsenal’s 4-1 demolition of Tottenham on Sunday, Henry shared his views on the contrast between the Premier League and Bundesliga, and why this might account for Wirtz’s troubles.

“It’s not easy to arrive in a team and perform straight away, as we can see with Florian Wirtz at Liverpool. But I always have a question mark over people who perform in Germany. That’s only me,” he said.

“I’m not saying they won’t perform in another league, I’m just saying because of the way the league is there, really stretched, if you can run well you’re going to have a lot of opportunities, goals and assists. People can run with you in this league, so it’s very difficult.”

Henry also believes that the current tactical approaches in top-level football don’t favour players like Wirtz, who thrive when given the freedom to drift and orchestrate play.

“If we talk about creating… do you think that managers now are letting their players dribble? Or do they want to control everything to make sure they don’t get countered?” he explained.

“Playing a low block all the time means it is not always easy to create. Look at Arsenal: we don’t always create a lot of opportunities. We score a lot of set pieces… You’re going to create a lot less than we used to be able to do in our time, because teams are playing low and they don’t try to bite or come out, so the spaces are tight.

“And if you don’t allow people to dribble and make mistakes – like I always said, the reward is in the risk – then where are you going? You’re not going to have the stats of creating, and if you don’t take your chances when you do then you’re in trouble.”