Carragher calls for Wirtz to be dropped after £116.5m signing offers nothing in City defeat

Jamie Carragher has called on Liverpool to drop Florian Wirtz from their starting XI after the £116.5m midfielder failed to make an impact in a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City at Anfield.

Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki were on the scoresheet for Enzo Maresca’s side on a damaging afternoon for Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool. The result was compounded when Ryan Gravenberch was sent off just after the hour mark, leaving the hosts to defend with ten men for the closing stages.

Carragher, speaking on the Gary Neville podcast, was unsparing in his assessment of Wirtz, pointing out that the Germany international has now had far more time to settle than some of his teammates. “He’s played 55, 60 games for Liverpool,” Carragher said. “What Florian Wirtz is doing for Liverpool is not enough right now.”

The former Liverpool defender drew a pointed comparison with summer arrival Bradley Barcola, who has made only four or five appearances. “If you were critical of him, it would be over the top,” Carragher said. “But not the guy that has played 60 games.”

Carragher also argued that younger attackers Victor Munoz and Lewis Koumas outperformed both Wirtz and Barcola on the day. “Koumas and Munoz were better than the two £100m players. That can’t be right.”

His sharpest criticism centred on Wirtz’s lack of attacking threat. “Wirtz never looks like scoring a goal. You don’t come away thinking he missed chances or he worked the goalkeeper. There was absolutely nothing today where you thought he put someone through, or nearly scored. There’s absolutely no goal threat whatsoever.”

Carragher had previously criticised Wirtz after Liverpool’s game at Bournemouth and acknowledged he received pushback from supporters at the time. He noted that Wirtz had performed well for Germany under Jurgen Klopp at international level, but said that form had not translated to club football. “He shouldn’t be in the Liverpool team right now,” he concluded. “We’re not saying this after five or ten games — we’re saying this after 50 to 60 games.”