Jamie Carragher says there was still one ‘big bright spark’ for Liverpool despite Man City hammering

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Liverpool fans had little to be positive about on Sunday evening after watching guilty Manchester City smack three unanswered goals past them at Anfield.There were injury worries, some sloppy play and a fairly alarming collapse after Ryan Gravenberch‘s unwarranted red card, all topped off by the nauseating sight of City players and staff celebrating shamelessly on the Anfield turf at full-time.Despite the raft of negatives, though, Jamie Carragher still found one reason to be positive, claiming that Gravenberch’s much-improved display should not be ignored by Liverpool fans, even if it did end in an early bath.FULL TIME Give us your INSTANT REACTION as Liverpool lose 3-0 to Man City 😡 Gravenberch should replace Florian Wirtz – CarragherCarragher has been hugely critical of Florian Wirtz in recent weeks, and his praise for Gravenberch on Sunday came amid some more frustrated comments about the German.Wirtz was nowhere to be seen once again as Liverpool slumped to defeat, and Carragher has now claimed that he should be taken out of the team and replaced by Gravenberch as a fix for Andoni Iraola’s unbalanced midfield.“I’m looking at the game as a Liverpool fan thinking, ‘no Isak, no Gakpo, our two best attackers this season, we need Barcola and Florian Wirtz to step up and help Munoz and help Koumas at the top end of the pitch,'” he said on Sky Sports after the game.“Koumas and Munoz were better than the two £100m players. Now, that can’t be right, it’s just not right and, again, it wasn’t even a decision for anybody in this stadium to make [about who to substitute off] when Liverpool went down to 10 men.”"Koumas & Munoz were better than the two £100million players!"Jamie Carragher is still disappointed with what he's seeing from Florian Wirtz in a Liverpool shirt 😬🔴 pic.twitter.com/jJwOZbPJ4b— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 11, 2026 View X READ MORE: Andoni Iraola explains Dominik Szoboszlai’s injury and whether he’ll be back for Liverpool vs LASK“The big bright spark for me today was seeing Gravenberch back to being the player that he is, and the player he’s been for Liverpool for the last two years,” Carragher continued.

“Now, he’s started really poorly under the new manager and been taken out of the team. There’s no way Florian Wirtz should be playing ahead of Gravenberch.

Gravenberch is 6 foot 3, he can open his legs, he can play, he can score goals, he gives you so much more and there’s got to be a rejig of that midfield because what Florian Wirtz is giving Liverpool right now is nowhere near enough.”Carragher lets Barcola off the hookCarragher likened Gravenberch to Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira during the defeat against City, and he is right to highlight improvement from the Dutchman after what has been a difficult start to the campaign.His assessment of Wirtz was also spot on, but he also pointed out that the 23-year-old was not the only underperforming big-money signing for Liverpool.But comparing his situation to that of Bradley Barcola – who also failed to really spark on Sunday – Carragher claimed that the early nature of Barcola’s time at Liverpool means he deserves to be given more benefit of the doubt for now.“He’s [Wirtz] played 55/60 games for Liverpool,” he said. “If we were going to look at Barcola, he’s played four or five games for Liverpool, hasn’t been amazing, you probably want a little bit more than we’ve seen today, but you hold your horses and say, ‘okay, five or six games, getting used to new players, new league, didn’t have a pre-season.’ “You’re giving him reasons and excuses and hoping it will get better, if you were critical of him right now that would be harsh, it would be over the top, but not a guy [Wirtz] who’s played 60 games.”With Gravenberch now suspended for next weekend’s match against Brentford, Iraola will not get the chance to put Carragher’s suggestion into practice, but the hope will be that the 24-year-old puts the red card out of his mind and continues his improvement when Liverpool face LASK in the Champions League next midweek.