For a period of time, Liverpool’s transfer business made them the envy of Europe’s elite. The Reds simply did not miss in the market. Jurgen Klopp was credited with getting the best out of the likes of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and basically the entire squad during that 2018-2022 period.
And while the German coach was pivotal to the club’s success, there was more to it than just his man management. Liverpool identified players with a point to prove. They targeted players who had that dog in them.
A Chelsea reject. An attacker overlooked by top clubs originally before being signed by Southampton. Even the signing of the late Diogo Jota raised a few eyebrows. At the time, the Reds paid £40million for him after his seven-goal haul the season prior, passing up the chance to sign Timo Werner for a similar fee. That worked out pretty well, didn’t it?
Even their big money buys arrived with a bit of a chip on their shoulders. The narrative at the time was that Virgil van Dijk wasn’t worth £50million, let alone the £75million the Merseyside club paid for him. And Alisson Becker, who they made the most expensive goalkeeper in the world, was passed on by Real Madrid.
It was a squad of players who, one way or another, felt wronged. Klopp harnessed that and the outcome was success. The Reds won it all.
But these sorts of signings pre-date Klopp. Liverpool had an awful record in the transfer market but every now and then they’d strike gold. Daniel Sturridge, for example, was another Chelsea flop who lit up Anfield. You had Philippe Coutinho carrying the attack at one stage under Brendan Rodgers. Luis Suarez had no right to do the things he was doing during his time at Anfield.
In each scenario, it wasn’t a perfect situation for the players. But they still managed to impose themselves on the team. It might’ve been their desire. It might’ve been their mentality. Whatever you want to put it down to, the fact is these players elevated the team almost singlehandedly.
Liverpool fans are accustomed to this.
Their latest talisman was supposed to be Florian Wirtz.
Signed in the summer of 2025 for a fee believed to be in the region of £116million, Wirtz was the centre-piece of this new-look Liverpool attack. Others arrived too but the media honed in on this being Wirtz’s team. Journalists told us he’d chosen Anfield over a move to Bayern Munich and Manchester City because of the project pitched to him. He was going to have the team shaped around him. The Reds went about arming him with the likes of Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike while phasing out Mohamed Salah.
It was a huge show of faith, as was the financial package to bring him to the club.
His start to life wasn’t perfect. Arne Slot was forever chopping and changing things. The system wasn’t suited to the No7 either and the players in the attack didn’t exactly suit his strengths. There’s always a bedding in process too, so it was a bit of a waiting game.
Then Andoni Iraola arrived and ripped everything up to start again. This, of course, meant Wirtz had to go through another period of change. But during the transition between being a Slot team and becoming an Iraola team, you hoped to at least see something.
He didn’t set the price-tag and it’s unfair to expect him to justify the fee paid. But it’s not unfair to expect him to justify his place in the starting XI. In the early weeks of the new campaign, he was doing a lot of work without the ball. He’d cover the most ground in the game, helping the midfield and covering for Isak’s lack of pressing.
Against Manchester City though in Liverpool’s 3-0 loss, the scene was set for him.
Yes, the hosts were without Isak - the team’s top scorer this season, Cody Gakpo - the team’s best creator this term, and Dominik Szoboszlai. But the team was set up for Wirtz. Either side of him, he had runners in Victor Munoz and Bradley Barcola. Ahead of him, he had the relentless Lewis Koumas. There were legs and pace around the No7. Behind him, he had Ryan Gravenberch, a ball carrier who creates space, and Alexis Mac Allister, a player who can keep play moving.
And Wirtz did receive possession in the right areas. City couldn’t deal with the high press of their hosts. Despite this, the 23-year-old finished the game with an expected goals haul of 0.15 and an expected assists total of 0.2. He wasted chances with his shot selection and could only create low value opportunities for teammates.
In a game that could’ve been seismic for his Liverpool career, he failed the audition. He showed nothing to suggest this could be his team, even without the big personalities from the attack missing.
As a result, he’s rightly been targeted again in the aftermath of the loss. Jamie Carragher, once again, singled Wirtz out.
Jamie Carragher says it's justified to criticise Florian Wirtz after he has been given so many chances and he must come out of Liverpool's starting line-up. pic.twitter.com/wAcUHcjR0b
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 11, 2026
Speaking on Sky Sports’ The Gary Neville Podcast after the game, Carragher said: “I’m sorry to say this, Florian Wirtz, it’s not working and it hasn’t worked so far. Ryan Gravenberch should not be sitting on the bench and Florian Wirtz playing for Liverpool.”
“I struggle to think of one game where he’s won Liverpool the game, he’s been the man if you like. He was bought in to be a star of the Premier League. I felt he could be the Kevin De Bruyne that City had, that I think at times got Man City over the line with Liverpool in league title runs.
“But I think you could make a case for there being 10 or 12 players in Liverpool’s Premier League era in that position who have done more than Florian Wirtz. He’s been here now for 55, 60 games, it’s a lot. It’s a lot and I don’t see it changing,” he continued.
“I can take a lot of positives [from this game], I think Liverpool played quite well against a really good team, but Gravenberch has to play, he has to play in that midfield. The Florian Wirtz [situation], where he’s almost nailed on that he plays every week in that No. 10 position, it has to stop. I think Liverpool have given him enough chances and I think he needs to come out of the team.”
And Gary Neville wasn’t any kinder: “It mystifies me watching him sometimes. His touch in a couple of important situations today really let him down.
“He does recognise it, because from where he came from he did score goals and he did assist, so he knows the importance of that.
“But does he really understand how important it is for him to go and score goals and assist goals? When you watch De Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes, they’re always trying to impact the game decisively in the final third with an assist or a goal. When I watch Wirtz, I always feel like I’m watching some form of rondo, some form of possession game that hasn’t got goals. It’s like ‘come on, you’ve got to think about two things: assists and goals, and transfer everything towards that’.”
Wirtz doesn’t want to be the main man at Anfield. He doesn’t have a point to prove or a chip on his shoulder. The pressure isn’t turning him into a diamond.
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