Liverpool have a problem with big-money summer signing Florian Wirtz, who looked like a little boy against Manchester City, believes Gary Neville.
It was a bad day out for the Premier League champions on Sunday as they were beaten 3-0 at the Etihad, further damaging their quite limp title defence.
Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku scored the goals for Pep Guardiola’s side and the loss left Liverpool eighth in the table.
Wirtz started the match and turned in another underwhelming performance as his painfully slow start to life in England continues, since his move from Bayer Leverkusen.
11 games into his Premier League career the German is yet to score or provide an assist and he is struggling to have much impact on matches at all.
Get personalised updates on Liverpool every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
Neville believes Liverpool have a physicality problem which was obvious against Manchester City and Wirtz is a part of it.
The Manchester United legend criticised another summer signing, Milos Kerkez, for ‘looking like a little boy’ during a Premier League game, and feels Wirtz has the same problem.
‘They look physically really, really well short in the game. Physically short in terms of their running and physically short in terms of getting out-muscled,’ he said on The Gary Neville Podcast.
‘I thought Wirtz in particular, I thought it was a really bad day for him. We’ve been tiptoeing around him for a few months. He’s young, coming to a new country, but he’s £120m, you’re going to have to stand up soon.
‘He’s obviously got something, he’s a really good player, he’s technically fantastic but he’s been mauled out there today, by [Matheus] Nunes and by others, he’s been chucked around the pitch and didn’t deliver in the quality side of things as well. So his performance was a real worry.
Metro @ The Match: Wirtz ghosts again
Analysis from Metro‘s Head of Sport James Goldman after Man City’s 3-0 victory over Liverpool…
Watch out Arsenal
Any suggestion that Mikel Arteta’s previously relentless winning machine would sleepwalk their way to the title was always fanciful prior to this weekend. It is pure folly now after a couple of familiar failings reared their head at the Stadium of Light on Sunday, before City laid down an emphatic marker against Liverpool. City have hunted down the Gunners from less promising positions in the past and although the personnel might be different, Arsenal’s failure to go course and distance in the past is likely to haunt them until they finally get over the line. Nothing about City’s recent form suggests they’re going to give them an easy ride.
City’s wing wizards
While they’ve still got to go some to emulate some of their illustrious predecessors, there’s definitely shades of Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling about the current City widemen. Jeremy Doku gave Conor Bradley an infinitesimally more testing time than Vinicius Jnr in midweek and his electric dribbling style now, more frequently than not, culminates in end product. On the opposite flank, Rayan Cherki’s magnetic first touch and inventiveness neatly complimented the qualities of those around him before he was withdrawn early in the second period.
Nico shows why he’s been called up by England
England’s left-back position is certainly up for grabs given the number of options Thomas Tuchel has experimented with over the course of his tenure. Myles Lewis-Skelly’s relative inactivity for Arsenal has handed an opportunity to Nico O’Reilly and it’s one the City youngster looks primed to take. Tasked with taming Mohamed Salah, the 20-year-old hardly gave Liverpool’s talisman an inch and his poise on the ball, a pre-requisite for any City player in Pep Guardiola’s system, helped his side navigate its way out of several tight spots and spring dangerous attacks.
Wirtz ghosts again
Doku’s improvement this season and man of the match display served as a timely remind that it is still way too soon to write off one of Liverpool’s two headline summer signings, but this was another concerning performance. So infrequent was his involvement in the game that it was difficult to determine the role he had been assigned. Either way, he looks ill at ease with the playmaking responsibilities he has presumably been charged with, no matter which combination of midfielders and forwards Arne Slot selects. Lightweight, indecisive and short on confidence, Wirtz and his manager have major issues to solve.
‘Physically I’d be worried if I was Arne Slot by that team there’s a few of them look like they can’t run.
‘Wirtz is a problem, let’s just call it as it is, it’s an issue. He’s £120m. I said a few weeks ago about Kerkez that he looks like a little boy out there and today I thought Wirtz looks like a little boy and that can’t be the case. He’s a Germany international of great standing and he looks well short in terms of what you’d expect in a top, physical Premier League match.’
Neville is not sure how Slot can solve his problem with Wirtz, but does feel the Dutchman has to stick with the German.
‘They’ve got to get him up to speed, get that little bit of tenacity into him and a little bit of something that means he gets into form,’ he said.
‘They’ve got to stick with him and persist but they’ve got to find a way to get the best out of him.’
Wirtz has produced his best performances for Liverpool in the Champions League and he was good in the win over Real Madrid last week when he played off the left.
Liverpool ‘destroyed their midfield’ with Wirtz
Speaking last week, Arsenal legend Arsene Wenger reckoned playing the German in the middle has not got the best out of him and ruined the successful midfield trio of last season of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai.
Wenger told beIN Sports: ‘When Wirtz had the choice between going to Bayern Munich or Liverpool, he said to Liverpool: “I come to you if I play No 10. I do not want to play wide.” Liverpool, to get him, they say OK.
‘They started him and they destroyed their midfield, which was [Ryan] Gravenberch, [Alexis] Mac Allister, [Dominik] Szoboszlai. To play Wirtz, they took Szoboszlai out. What have they done? They have gone back to their midfield of last year.’
It was that trio starting in midfield against Manchester City, with Wirtz on the flank again, but clearly it was unsuccessful for Slot.
The Reds boss said of Wenger’s assessment before Sunday’s match: ‘Everyone has a right to his own opinion. We have five or six very good midfielders who can all play together but they need to play more together to get the best out of every single player.
‘Florian needs time to adapt to his teammates and teammates need time to adapt to him. Now he played off the left but I can tell you, if it is not now it is tomorrow, he will have great performances as a midfielder for Liverpool as well.’