Arne Slot signing has ‘one month’ to save Liverpool career, says Didi Hamann

Didi Hamann believes one of Arne Slot’s summer signings is already fighting to save his Liverpool career less than six months since joining the club.

Slot oversaw a quite stunning spending spree in last summer’s transfer window, with the reigning Premier league champions splashing out over £400m on new players.

The new additions have not had the desired effect, however, with Liverpool losing nine of their last 12 games in all competitions.

The club’s worst run since the 1950s has seen Liverpool drop into the bottom-half of the Premier League table – 11 points behind leaders Arsenal.

One of the biggest issues for Liverpool has been the form of £115m signing Florian Wirtz, who is still waiting for his first goal for the club.

Wirtz was Liverpool’s most expensive signing in history until the club broke their own record in the same transfer window on £125m Alexander Isak.

Not just without a goal, former Bayer Leverkusen star and Germany international Wirtz has not made a single assist in 11 Premier League appearances.

Former Liverpool midfielder Hamann is hugely concerned by Wirtz’s form at Anfield and believes he has ‘got until Christmas’ to turn things around.

Barring an upturn in form, Wirtz could even be offloaded by Liverpool during the January transfer window, according to Hamann.

‘Florian Wirtz has had chances to perform,’ Hamann told Coin Poker. ‘He’s had chances over the last six to eight weeks, where the team hasn’t really fired since the start of the season.

‘Even the games against Bournemouth, Newcastle, and Burnley were all games they probably didn’t deserve to win, but they did, and he played in all of them. He’s had the chance for the last three months to perform.

‘What should make me believe he’s going to do it now, because the team seems to be in disarray? It’s not easy when you come in and there are cracks or problems within the team, and I don’t know what it is or why it is.

‘He doesn’t look happy at the moment. He’s a player who learned football on the streets, and that’s how he played for Leverkusen, and this is why he was so natural, he always did the right thing.

‘Now he doesn’t do that anymore, he thinks too much. I think he works too much going backwards, which credits and honours him because he wants to help the team.

‘But obviously, he was brought in to affect games on the other side of the pitch, and he hasn’t done it so far.

‘Having said that, it might take a little bit of weight off his shoulders because people clearly saw this past weekend that he is not the problem. Despite that, so far he’s been very disappointing.

‘I think he’s got until Christmas now to show his worth, which is not easy because, as I said, the team is not functioning at the moment.

‘I think if he doesn’t do it from now until Christmas, I’m pretty sure that the club will get together with him and see what the best would be for both parties.’

Pressed on if he meant Wirtz could leave Liverpool in January, Hamann added: ‘Could he go somewhere else on loan? Yeah.

‘Obviously with all the help and all the protection from the club and the manager, if you bring somebody in for that amount of money, then maybe he should be the one, even though he’s still very young, then maybe you expect him to turn things around.

‘I don’t think, the way he’s playing at the moment, I’m not sure he’s capable of doing that. And when I watch him sometimes, you know, thinking, has he lost belief because it is in the Premier League?

‘Sometimes when I watch him when he loses possession, I’m thinking maybe it’s because it’s a lot quicker, a lot more physical, as if he were to say: “I’m not sure that’s for me.”

‘I hope I’m wrong, but this is how it looks to me. Sometimes if it’s going on for too long, you know, it’s very hard to turn it around.’

Liverpool’s crisis deepened during the week as they were thumped 4-1 by PSV in the Champions League.

Slot will be desperate for an improved performance on Sunday when the defending champions travel to east London to face West Ham.

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