Gary Neville feels it is time for Florian Wirtz to start delivering for Liverpool, telling the Germany international to ‘sort himself out’ after another underwhelming performance.
Wirtz arrived at Anfield from Bayer Leverkusen last summer for £116million and has failed to live up to that mammoth price tag since.
The 23-year-old started in the 2-2 draw with Newcastle on Sunday and produced another forgettable performance before being replaced by Alexis Mac Allister on 63 minutes.
That outing at St James’ Park was his 34th Premier League appearance, during which time he has produced five goals and three assists.
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Neville expects a lot more from Wirtz and from striker Alexander Isak, who was also underwhelming on Sunday, but did have the excuse last season of being injured for a significant amount of the campaign.
‘They’re going to have to start playing sooner or later or else, to be fair, they’re going to get quite a lot of criticism,’ the Manchester United legend told Sky Sports. ‘For a start, they’re too nice, and if you’re going to be nice, you’d better be incredible at football.
‘I don’t see the tenacity in Wirtz in particular. I just see a nice player moving around the pitch, not really ever looking like he’s busting a gut to do anything.
‘Now, that can happen. Sometimes players have that flow about them, but I want to put a rocket up him. I want to put a rocket up him because there’s ability there, there’s talent there, the understanding of his position.’
He added: ‘Wirtz, he needs to sort himself out. Enough’s enough now, we’ve talked about him enough. He’s young and he’s come to a different country – and I’m all for willing him on.
‘They have both had a bit of a free ride. Obviously Isak was injured last season but Arne Slot loses his job, and Wirtz has played like that, so let’s be clear, this has got me to start some real focus now.
‘I can see a real player there, but can’t keep watching this stuff and he’s been subbed after an hour and they need a goal, but they’re 2-1 down, so no that’s not right.’
The former full-back suggested that Wirtz and Isak would benefit from the German playing in a more advanced position, feeling that he drops deep and drifts wide too much.
The two could create an excellent partnership, but need to be closer on the pitch to do so.
‘Sometimes I think he moves around too much. Sometimes I don’t think he’s close enough to his striker, I don’t think he understands where the game’s going to be won and lost,’ Neville said of Wirtz.
‘When I played football and No 10s sometimes drifted too deep, or too wide, they would get a right rollicking off our manager.
‘The game’s not going to be won out there, the game’s not going to be won back there, the game’s going to be won in the final third, in and around the box.
‘Combining with your striker, getting crosses in, getting little passes, getting little side passes down the side of the centre-backs, being close enough to your forward so that you can combine with him. And I don’t see him combining with Isak.
‘I just feel like Wirtz has got to think about being involved in the build-up less and think about being a second striker. He’s got to think about his output and what he needs to do, and that is feed Isak with little passes down the side of centre-backs. He might only get the ball two or three times in that position in tight games where teams are lying deep.’