Jamie Carragher delivered a blunt assessment of Liverpool\u2019s performance in Istanbul, focusing criticism on new signing Florian Wirtz and urging a reset from manager Arne Slot. Several issues were highlighted from Tuesday\u2019s defeat: Ryan Gravenberch was substituted after an uncharacteristic display, Dominik Szoboszlai conceded the penalty that decided the match, and Virgil van Dijk struggled to cope with Victor Osimhen.<\/p>\n
Carragher singled out Wirtz, the \u00a3116 million ($156.3 million) summer recruit, for particular concern. \u201cRight now I don\u2019t think the balance of the team is right and the obvious one that stands out is Florian Wirtz,\u201d he said. He continued, \u201cHe\u2019s just not at the races at all. He\u2019s a young boy coming into a new league\u2014he has got plenty of time to go as a Liverpool player but right now I think he needs to come out of the team, Liverpool go back to what they were last season and then go from there and build some confidence, build some defensive solidity.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause right now it is a mess. It\u2019s not the losses, it is not the defeats. This has been coming from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirtz again failed to make the breakthrough in Istanbul, taking three shots and creating a pair of chances without success. The German playmaker is yet to score for his new side and has not registered an assist in any competition since the Community Shield.<\/p>\n
Carragher was scathing about the overall style: \u201cI\u2019m not watching a top team,\u201d he said. \u201cLiverpool aren\u2019t playing football at the moment, they are playing basketball. It is just end to end and I don\u2019t think top teams play like that.\u201d He added that recent transfers had attempted to add flair to a workmanlike squad but that the side \u201chaven\u2019t gained anything going forward but they have lost a lot defensively,\u201d and warned the manager: \u201cI think for the manager now, last season was such a smooth ride for them, he\u2019s now got to really earn his money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot defended his players over the penalty incident, saying: \u201cWe are sometimes a bit outsmarted in situations like this and I cannot blame Dominik Szoboszlai for the situation. They make a 20% penalty a 100% penalty, which is very smart from them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not so far [off the level shown last season]. This is sometimes what the schedule can bring\u2014Galatasaray is not a simple game. We now play Chelsea away, a difficult game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe margins are small and they were last season. For the second time in a row we are on the wrong side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carragher calls for changes after Liverpool’s poor showing in Istanbul, urging Wirtz out of the side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,969],"tags":[1081,299,223],"class_list":["post-3436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-adaptation","tag-arne-slot","tag-dominik-szoboszlai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3436","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=3436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}