Jamie Carragher has asked Andoni Iraola to make a difficult call on Florian Wirtz, arguing that the Liverpool midfielder\u2019s level for Liverpool remains far below what was expected when he arrived last summer.<\/p>\n
The discussion intensified after Liverpool\u2019s narrow win over Bournemouth on Sunday. Wirtz started in the No. 10 role and was credited with three chances created, but his influence on the game was limited. He finished with 0.05 expected assists and 0.22 expected goals, while every attempt he made was blocked immediately. Carragher felt the performance offered little evidence that the player is moving closer to the standard Liverpool hoped for.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing is happening there at all,\u201d Carragher said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the poorest I\u2019ve ever seen him in a Liverpool shirt. I\u2019ve been critical of the fact that he hasn\u2019t got the numbers. But normally when you watch Wirtz, he\u2019s neat and tidy, he keeps possession, there\u2019s things that you like. He gets out of a tight situation where you’re normally expecting your player to lose the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carragher\u2019s view has now shifted beyond form. He suggested the issue may not be temporary, but instead representative of what Wirtz actually is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worry [because] I don\u2019t think Wirtz is in poor form since he came to Liverpool. I actually think what we\u2019re seeing is what he is. It was just in the back of my head [for 12 months].<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see how he\u2019s going to hurt you. It\u2019s just neat and tidy. And in some way, the price tag for that type of player should be half of what Liverpool have paid. The worry for Wirtz now is that his performances so far, or what he\u2019s given Liverpool, is so low. Where we were expecting him was to take Liverpool to another league title, to take Liverpool to a Champions League .\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the \u201cgap\u201d between expectation and reality is \u201calmost too big\u201d to close, even with improvement. Carragher compared Wirtz with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Morgan Gibbs-White and Emiliano Buend\u00eda, who he believes are adding more regular value for their teams.<\/p>\n
That led to the question of selection. Carragher pointed out that Iraola has already been willing to leave Ryan Gravenberch out for much of the season, and said Wirtz should be judged in the same way, especially with Manchester City next after the international window.<\/p>\n
\u201cWirtz wouldn\u2019t be in my Liverpool team. Manchester City at home, for me, he can’t be in the team,\u201d Carragher said. \u201cThe things I\u2019ve liked so far about Iraola, he\u2019s had the courage to make big decisions. Ryan Gravenberch has just signed a hefty contract on a five-year deal on massive money. He\u2019s not playing. Sooner or later he’s going to have to make a decision on Florian Wirtz. I hope it\u2019s sooner. Not because I don\u2019t like Florian Wirtz, I\u2019m desperate for the kid to do well. I just want Liverpool to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carragher says Iraola may soon have to decide on Wirtz after another low-impact Liverpool display.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[739,175],"tags":[1836,1162,180],"class_list":["post-20084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","category-liverpool","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}