Gary Neville blasts Liverpool ‘problem’ player who ‘looks like just a little boy’ | Football

Liverpool have an issue with big-money summer signing Florian Wirtz, who looked like just a little boy against Manchester City, believes Gary Neville.

It was a foul time out for the Premier League champions on Sunday as they were beaten 3-0 on the Etihad, further damaging their quite limp title defence.

Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku scored the goals for Pep Guardiola’s side and the loss left Liverpool eighth within the table.

Wirtz began the match and turned in one other underwhelming performance as his painfully slow begin to life in England continues, since his move from Bayer Leverkusen.

11 games into his Premier League profession the German is yet to attain or provide an assist and he’s struggling to have much impact on matches in any respect.

Neville believes Liverpool have a physicality problem which was obvious against Manchester City and Wirtz is a component of it.

The Manchester United legend criticised one other summer signing, Milos Kerkez, for ‘looking like just a little boy’ during a Premier League game, and feels Wirtz has the identical problem.

‘They give the impression of being physically really, rather well short in the sport. Physically short by way of their running and physically short by way of getting out-muscled,’ he said on The Gary Neville Podcast.

‘I assumed Wirtz specifically, I assumed it was a extremely bad day for him. We’ve been tiptoeing around him for a number of months. He’s young, coming to a brand new country, but he’s £120m, you’re going to must rise up soon.

‘He’s obviously got something, he’s a extremely good player, he’s technically implausible but he’s been mauled on the market today, by [Matheus] Nunes and by others, he’s been chucked across the pitch and didn’t deliver in the standard side of things as well. So his performance was an actual worry.

Metro @ The Match: Wirtz ghosts again

Evaluation from Metro‘s Head of Sport James Goldman after Man City’s 3-0 victory over Liverpool…

Be careful Arsenal

Any suggestion that Mikel Arteta’s previously relentless winning machine would sleepwalk their approach to the title was all the time fanciful prior to this weekend. It’s pure folly now after a few familiar failings reared their head on the Stadium of Light on Sunday, before City laid down an emphatic marker against Liverpool. City have hunted down the Gunners from less promising positions previously and although the personnel is perhaps different, Arsenal’s failure to go course and distance previously is more likely to haunt them until they finally recover from the road. Nothing about City’s recent form suggests they’re going to provide them a simple ride.

City’s wing wizards

While they’ve still got to go some to emulate a few of their illustrious predecessors, there’s definitely shades of Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling concerning the current City widemen. Jeremy Doku gave Conor Bradley an infinitesimally more testing time than Vinicius Jnr in midweek and his electric dribbling style now, more steadily than not, culminates in end product.  On the other flank, Rayan Cherki’s magnetic first touch and inventiveness neatly complimented the qualities of those around him before he was withdrawn early within the second period.

Nico shows why he’s been called up by England

England’s left-back position is definitely up for grabs given the variety of options Thomas Tuchel has experimented with over the course of his tenure. Myles Lewis-Skelly’s relative inactivity for Arsenal has handed a chance to Nico O’Reilly and it’s one the City teenager looks primed to take. Tasked with taming Mohamed Salah, the 20-year-old hardly gave Liverpool’s talisman an inch and his poise on the ball, a pre-requisite for any City player in Pep Guardiola’s system, helped his side navigate its way out of several tight spots and spring dangerous attacks.

Wirtz ghosts again

Doku’s improvement this season and man of the match display served as a timely remind that it continues to be way too soon to jot down off one among Liverpool’s two headline summer signings, but this was one other concerning performance. So infrequent was his involvement in the sport that it was difficult to find out the role he had been assigned. Either way, he looks in poor health relaxed with the playmaking responsibilities he has presumably been charged with, regardless of which combination of midfielders and forwards Arne Slot selects. Lightweight, indecisive and short on confidence, Wirtz and his manager have major issues to resolve.

‘Physically I’d be nervous if I used to be Arne Slot by that team there’s a number of of them appear to be they will’t run.

‘Wirtz is an issue, let’s just call it because it is, it’s a difficulty. He’s £120m. I said a number of weeks ago about Kerkez that he looks like just a little boy on the market and today I assumed Wirtz looks like just a little boy and that may’t be the case. He’s a Germany international of great standing and he looks well short by way of what you’d expect in a top, physical Premier League match.’

Neville just isn’t sure how Slot can solve his problem with Wirtz, but does feel the Dutchman has to persist with the German.

‘They’ve got to get him up to the mark, get that little little bit of tenacity into him and just a little little bit of something which means he gets into form,’ he said.

‘They’ve got to persist with him and persist but they’ve got to seek out a approach to get one of the best out of him.’

Wirtz has produced his best performances for Liverpool within the Champions League and he was good within the win over Real Madrid last week when he played off the left.

Liverpool ‘destroyed their midfield’ with Wirtz

Speaking last week, Arsenal legend Arsene Wenger reckoned playing the German in the center has not got one of the best out of him and ruined the successful midfield trio of last season of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai.

Wenger told beIN Sports: ‘When Wirtz had the alternative between going to Bayern Munich or Liverpool, he said to Liverpool: “I come to you if I play No 10. I don’t need to play wide.” Liverpool, to get him, they are saying OK.

‘They began him they usually destroyed their midfield, which was [Ryan] Gravenberch, [Alexis] Mac Allister, [Dominik] Szoboszlai. To play Wirtz, they took Szoboszlai out. What have they done? They’ve gone back to their midfield of last yr.’

It was that trio starting in midfield against Manchester City, with Wirtz on the flank again, but clearly it was unsuccessful for Slot.

The Reds boss said of Wenger’s assessment before Sunday’s match: ‘Everyone has a right to his own opinion. We’ve got 5 or 6 superb midfielders who can all play together but they should play more together to get one of the best out of each player.

‘Florian needs time to adapt to his teammates and teammates need time to adapt to him. Now he played off the left but I can inform you, if it just isn’t now it’s tomorrow, he could have great performances as a midfielder for Liverpool as well.’

MORE: Wayne Rooney calls out Liverpool star for ‘not helping’ teammate during Man City defeat

MORE: Pep Guardiola calls Liverpool star ‘among the finest within the Premier League’

MORE: Jamie Carragher makes big Arsenal claim after Man City smash Liverpool