When Florian Wirtz signed for Liverpool in the summer of 2025, there was only one logical assumption. The Premier League champions at the time had recruited one of the hottest young talents in world football – a key player in the Bayer Leverkusen team that had won the double in 2023-24 and a star in the Germany team. An exciting and productive young attacking midfielder being added to the best team in England?
Football has a habit of flipping the script, though. Last season was difficult for Liverpool for several reasons, and Wirtz, along with other new arrivals, struggled to make the impact expected of a £116m player. There were conversations among fans this summer about how long he and fellow nine-figure signing Alexander Isak should be given before difficult questions needed be asked.
The consensus was until Christmas. As it turned out, the real answer was after the opening game as Wirtz and Isak laboured in Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at Newcastle and loud doubts began to surface. Jamie Carragher spoke on the first Monday Night Football of the season about Wirtz’s signing in 2025 potentially being part of the “worst transfer window in Premier League history”.
The former Liverpool defender was criticising a few players – and Isak has since gone on to score four times in his last four league appearances to quieten his doubters – but Carragher focused his ire on Wirtz again on Sunday in a new podcast for Sky Sports. I think what we’re seeing is what he is,” he said. Where we were expecting him was to take Liverpool to another league title, to take Liverpool to a Champions League.
The gap he’s got to close to justify what people were expecting I almost think is too big. Even if he improves a bit, it’s still not what Liverpool thought they were getting. Andoni Iraola’s got a decision to make here.
Wirtz would not be in my Liverpool team.” Carragher derided Wirtz – who has just one assist in six games this season – for his performance in the team’s 1-0 win at Bournemouth, calling it “one of the poorest I’ve ever seen him in a Liverpool shirt”. Iraola was more generous though and accepted that the German had struggled in the first half. Florian has helped us also to improve.
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