Jamie Carragher has again turned up the pressure on Florian Wirtz, arguing that Liverpool should leave the $158 million attacker out of the side for upcoming matches.<\/p>\n
The former Liverpool defender was left unimpressed by another subdued display and claimed the midfielder offers far too little in front of goal. Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher said: \u201cWhat Florian Wirtz is doing for Liverpool is not enough right now. He\u2019s played 55, 60 games for Liverpool. If we were looking at [Bradley] Barcola, he has played four or five. You would want more but hold your horses. If you were critical of him, it would be over the top, but not the guy that has played 60 games.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was even more direct when assessing the player\u2019s current place in the team. Carragher added: \u201cHe shouldn\u2019t be in the Liverpool team right now. I don\u2019t want to hammer Liverpool players. But we\u2019re not saying this after five to 10 games, we\u2019re saying this after 50 to 60 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWirtz never looks like scoring a goal. You don\u2019t come away thinking he missed chances or he worked the goalkeeper. There was absolutely nothing where you thought he put someone through, or nearly scored. There\u2019s absolutely no goal threat whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporters had been prepared to give Wirtz time during his first season, especially with Liverpool struggling under Arne Slot. But patience is now fading quickly. Across seven appearances this season, Wirtz has managed only one goal involvement, after producing 15 last term. For a club-record signing, that return is not enough to quiet the noise.<\/p>\n
Liverpool have already persisted with him through difficult spells. He started 40 of 49 appearances in his first campaign, even when performances were short of the standard expected in domestic and European competition. What they have not yet tried, however, is removing him from the starting side.<\/p>\n
That may become more realistic when Dominik Szoboszlai returns from injury. The Hungarian is the obvious alternative as a No. 10, and he offers more goal threat, having scored three times this season, as well as greater defensive security.<\/p>\n
Another route would be to use Wirtz later in matches, when tired legs might suit his creativity. A wider shift is also possible. He has previously played on the left and right, and even as a false nine, though none of those roles are his first choice. With Liverpool carrying four natural left wingers and an opening still available on the right, a move there could be one way to ease the burden on a player still searching for rhythm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool are considering tactical changes around Florian Wirtz as criticism mounts after a slow start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[242,180,182],"class_list":["post-21766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","tag-injury","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21766","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=21766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}