AS far as debuts go, Jan Kirchhoff’s was right up there with Jonathan Woodgate’s for Real Madrid. When football fans consider the worst first appearances, Sunderland’s new recruit will be remembered along with Woodgate’s own goal and red card at the Bernabeu in 2005.

They are not alone. Anyone remember Ali Dia, supposedly George Weah’s cousin, being introduced for Southampton in 1996? Graeme Souness hauled him off ten minutes later against Leeds. He was spotted shortly after playing for Gateshead and in the Wearside League.

There was Jose Reyes’ nightmare own goal at Middlesbrough for Arsenal following his £17m switch from Sevilla; one which effectively secured Boro’s place in the Carling Cup final in 2004.

And then there are other culprits: Curtis Davies (described as a ‘pub player’), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United lost 3-0 after £18m move to Leeds) and Garry Flitcroft (sent off within three minutes). Last month Kirchhoff joined them for his horror show as a substitute during Sunderland’s 4-1 defeat at Tottenham.

It was 1-1 at the time, a minute later Mousa Dembele had put Spurs in front. Then Kirchhoff stuck a tame leg out to help Christian Eriksen’s hopeful effort from range into the top corner, before hauling down Danny Rose in the box to gift Harry Kane a penalty.

Kirchhoff’s big Premier League move was not supposed to start like that; it should have been much more like last Tuesday when he was handed his full debut by Sam Allardyce.

Sunderland supporters were stunned to see his name included on the teamsheet to face Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and the rest of the star-studded Manchester City line-up. Those same fans soon changed their tune, when his first few touches all earned him cheers and applause from the Stadium of Light crowd.

Kirchhoff, left out of the home game with Bournemouth after his Spurs experience, explained: “I tried to help the team and it went wrong. I had a lot of time after that to get fit, I played 90 minutes for the Under-21s and in a test game. It helped me. I worked hard to get fit. I put in a good performance against Manchester City and I hope to go on from this.”

Kirchhoff could not really have wished for a better display against City. Talk about extremes … while he was really that bad against Tottenham in mid-January he was really that good when he walked off the pitch after the Manchester City outing.

Confidence issues would normally play a part, but it soon becomes clearer why he was able to put the White Hart pain behind him in such an effective manner when you spend time in his company.

First impressions of the German, who has worked under both Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola despite being just 25 years of age, is an extremely likeable and down-to-earth individual. There is a realistic acceptance that not everything in life goes smoothly, suggesting it is how you react to such setbacks that will make or break you.

But he also insists Sunderland’s players, the majority of whom will not have heard of him when he was plucked from Bayern Munich’s reserves for £750,000 last month by Allardyce, played their own part in the fluent English speaker being able to quickly overcome the worst possible start.

“It is so easy to feel part of the squad,” said Kirchhoff. “The guys are so nice and helpful. I have felt at home from the first day. I have had total support from the whole club.

“It is easy to be here, it is easy to do my work and be professional and the best I can be. The guys have helped me, John O’Shea and Wes Brown especially. They are very good professionals. They know everything about football. They have played for almost 20 years. I am getting so much help, I am thankful for all the staff and I will try to give it back on the pitch.”

The challenge facing Kirchhoff this afternoon will be to repeat his German efficiency at the bottom of Sunderland’s midfield at Liverpool. He will need to offer the Black Cats defence the same level of protection at Anfield as he did on Wearside earlier this week.

Only this time he will expect Liverpool to know a lot more about him. Not only will the Reds’ analysts have put together a sequence of clips of his strengths and weaknesses from his first two outings, Liverpool are led by a head coach who knows all about him.

When Klopp cut his teeth in management at Mainz, Kirchhoff was there. He had moved from Eintracht Frankfurt in 2007 and had a year under the highly-rated and promising coach even though he was never handed his debut until after Klopp had joined Borussia Dortmund the following summer.

Kirchhoff said: “I was a youth player at Mainz when he was there and I trained under him, but I didn’t play a professional game. He is a totally nice person. He is as funny as hell. He is a good talker.

“He has a very good mentality in all his teams. I know his game from all the time I was there at Mainz, I know it in Dortmund too, I have seen how he works. He puts a lot of intensity his squads and a lot of pressure for the opponent, playing a very fast kind of football. We will see what we will come up against on Saturday.”

Even though he was only 18 at the time, Kirchhoff looks back on those 12 months under Klopp as a hugely valuable experience and he always felt he was a coach with a bright future ahead of him.

“When you have a trainer like that, you can see he has quality and he will be a good coach from day one,” said Kirchhoff. “When you work close to someone and see their training style, and the way he speaks to the guys, as a player you can see in two minutes that he will be a good coach.

“I’m looking forward to seeing him at Anfield, I will be happy to see him and talk a little bit of German … I have not been able to do that at Sunderland so far! Also Emre Can, and Roberto Firmino are there who I know, there are a lot of guys at Liverpool that I know from the Bundesliga. It will be a nice adventure as well to play at Anfield.”

Kirchhoff – a German international at Under-18s, 19s and 21s - made his first team debut for Mainz in 2008, but he has only just passed the 100 appearance mark in league football. His lack of first team action has come as a result of leaving Mainz behind after being lured to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2013; the same close season a certain Pep Guardiola stepped into the Allianz Arena.

Guardiola, looking for a third straight Bundesliga title under his watch, is preparing for a move to the Premier League himself in a few months’ time after accepting the challenge to take over from Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City.

“For me, he is the best coach in the world,” said Kirchhoff. “I am totally sure, everywhere he goes he will be successful. He will be successful at City. For me, he is a nice person and a very honest person. I think they will be very successful with him and have a great time with him. I totally respect him.”

Kirchhoff struggled to make an impact at Bayern. He had only made one late substitute appearance this season before his move to Sunderland – hence his lack of fitness for the Tottenham mess – and he only made nine league appearances under Guardiola.

“It is definitely different coming into a team struggling,” said Kirchhoff, who has also had an 18-month spell on loan at Schalke. “But I had the same situation at Mainz in my early career, so it is nothing new for me.

“It is totally different football in the Premier League, especially to Bayern Munich. I have to get used to it and get in my best body condition. I need to get used to English football. When you are in a new team, you have to look what is the quality of your team-mates and what type of football the manager prefers.”

Bayern’s aspirations are on winning titles, while Sunderland’s are of a different ilk. He has not made the switch to Wearside, though, believing he will be playing in the Championship next season, despite the four-point gap they have to make up on safety.

Kirchhoff said: “We have had a hard season and we are trying to stay in the league. But we saw what we are capable of when we put this much intensity into a game. We could have got a point or even a win against Man City, one of the best teams in the league.

“If we go on like this, and put this intensity into every game, we will be able to stay in the league, we will have no trouble to beat the teams at the bottom. So we have to go on, work hard, play hard, stay together as a team, and then we will be successful.”