Jamie Carragher urged Arne Slot to take Florian Wirtz out of the firing line after his latest quiet performance in Liverpool’s Champions League defeat to Galatasaray.
Victor Osimhen’s first-half penalty saw Galatasaray condemn Liverpool to their second defeat in four days after their loss to Crystal Palace in the Premier League at the weekend.
But beyond the result, it was another concerning performance for Slot’s side, who have looked well below last season’s title-winning level in the opening weeks of this campaign.
The Reds were once again porous in defence and disjointed in the middle of the park, with their latest poor display drawing heavy criticism from Carragher.
‘I don’t feel like I’m watching a top team,’ the former Liverpool defender told CBS Sports. ‘Liverpool aren’t playing football right now, they are playing basketball, and it’s just end to end. I don’t think top teams play like that.
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‘Liverpool went from a workmanlike team, and they’ve sprinkled a little bit of stardust on that with the transfers that they brought in.
‘They haven’t gained anything going forward but they’ve lost a lot defensively.
‘Last season was such a smooth ride but now he’s got to really earn his money because they are a few problems that need to be fixed.’
With Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak starting on the bench, Wirtz was given his latest chance to impress, but it proved to be another anonymous display from the German international.
And Carragher insisted it is now in Slot’s best interest to drop the midfielder to take some pressure off his shoulders and help Liverpool regain some balance in their team.
‘Right now, I don’t think the balance of the team is right and the obvious one that stands out is Florian Wirtz – he’s just not at the races at all,’ Carragher added.
‘He’s a young boy coming into a new league and he’s got plenty of time to go as a Liverpool player, but right now I think he needs to come out of the team, Liverpool get back to where they were last season and then go from there and try and build some confidence and defensive solidity because right now it is a mess.
‘It’s not the losses, it’s not the defeats, it’s the performances. And this has been coming from day one. Liverpool got battered by Newcastle in the second half of that game, and Newcastle had 10 men. That cannot happen.
‘Crystal Palace created seven big chances, which is more than any team has conceded in a game this season and Liverpool are the champions. This is not a shock, it’s been coming. And the manager needs to fix it.’
Speaking after the game, Slot said: ‘Disappointing because you play football to win a game and that’s what we didn’t do.
‘For me it was a different loss to the one we had against [Crystal] Palace because for me there was a lot more to like, especially in the first half, which was maybe different to the Palace game.
‘And in the second half, it became harder and harder for us to create. First of all, because they were fighting with all they had so you have to give credit to them and second of all because we hardly played in the second half. By ‘hardly played’ I mean the ball was hardly in play.’