Jamie Carragher begs Liverpool to drop Florian Wirtz immediately in latest brutal takedown

· Mirror

Liverpool were beaten by Manchester City at Anfield and Florian Wirtz struggled, with Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher again taking aim at the Germany midfielder

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has begged for Liverpool to take Florian Wirtz out of the starting XI after the German struggled in the defeat to Manchester City. Enzo Maresca's side ran out 3-0 winners after Ryan Gravenberch's sending off just after the hour mark.

Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki were among the goals for the visitors on a disappointing afternoon for Andoni Iraola's side.

Carragher doesn't feel that Wirtz is giving enough for the Reds and has again hit out at the Germany international for his recent performances.

Speaking on the Gary Neville podcast, Carragher said: > "I’m going to go back to Florian Wirtz, because I was critical of him after the last game Liverpool played at Bournemouth. > > "I was then criticised a little bit by Liverpool supporters for putting a negative slant on it. But what I did say was it could be the last hope if Jurgen Klopp could get his arm around him when he was with Germany. > > "He played really well for Germany under Jurgen Klopp. But he has come here today, I’m looking at the game with no [Alexander] Isak and no [Cody] Gakpo, our two best attackers this season. > > "We need [Bradley] Barcola and we need Wirtz to step up and help [Victor] Munoz and [Lewis] Koumas at the top of the pitch. Koumas and Munoz were better than the two £100m players. > > "That can’t be right. It’s not right. It wasn’t a decision for anyone in the stadium when Liverpool went down to 10 men. And the big bright spark was [Ryan] Gravenberch. He started badly and was taken out of the team. > > "There is no way Wirtz should be playing ahead of Gravenberch. What Florian Wirtz is doing for Liverpool is not enough right now. He’s played 55, 60 games for Liverpool.

> "If we were looking at Barcola, he has played four or five. You would want more but hold your horses. If you were critical of him, it would be over the top, but not the guy that has played 60 games."

Carragher added that the £116.5m signing doesn't ever appear a threat in the final third.

He continued: > “He shouldn’t be in the Liverpool team right now. I don’t want to hammer Liverpool players. But we’re not saying this after five-ten games, we’re saying this after 50-60 games. > > “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.”

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