Florian Wirtz does not look like a £116m player but it is early to write him off
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Jamie Carragher spoke on the first Monday Night Football of the season about Wirtz’s signing in 2025 potentially being part of the “worst transfer window in Premier League history”.The former Liverpool defender was criticising a few players – and Isak has since gone on to score four times in his last four league appearances to quieten his doubters – but Carragher focused his ire on Wirtz again on Sunday on a new podcast for Sky Sports.“The reason I worry is, I don’t think Wirtz is in poor form since he came to Liverpool. “The worry for Wirtz now is that what he’s given Liverpool is so low.
Wirtz would not be in my Liverpool team.”Carragher derided Wirtz – who has just one assist in six games this season – for his performance in the team’s 1-0 win at Bournemouth, calling it “one of the poorest I’ve ever seen him in a Liverpool shirt”. He produced 16 goals and 14 assists in his final season before heading to England, with only Mohamed Salah (18) and Lamine Yamal (13) getting more than his 12 assists from open play among players from Europe’s top five leagues.However, he only recorded seven goals and eight assists in 49 games in his first season at Liverpool, and it took until late December to register his first league goal as the champions struggled, ultimately limping home in fifth place and ending the campaign without a trophy.
He ranked joint 12th, 21st and 27th in the Premier League for each metric, respectively, last season.Wirtz has also covered the most distance of Liverpool players in three of his five Premier League games, but it is his lack of impact on the ball that seems to have most people taking aim. Things have barely gotten going under Iraola, and Liverpool as a team are clearly still several rungs below their potential.Wirtz is a 23-year-old trying to find his feet in the strongest league in the world, and while there is no denying that he’s far from his best, that doesn’t mean improvement is impossible, or even unlikely.The eye-watering fee is undoubtedly a factor for the critics.