Liverpool icon Kenny Dalglish has shared his thoughts on what Florian Wirtz must do to settle in at Anfield, following sharp criticism from Jamie Carragher regarding the German’s early performances in the Premier League.
Dalglish, a club legend both as a player and manager, weighed in on Wirtz’s slow start since his £116 million switch from Bayer Leverkusen. Despite an impressive previous season—scoring 16 goals and assisting 15 for Die Werkself—the 22-year-old has yet to register a goal or assist in his first six appearances for the Reds, prompting concerns over whether he can live up to his record-breaking price tag.
While some suggest that Wirtz just needs time to adjust to English football, Dalglish has offered a different perspective on what the young midfielder needs to focus on to find his rhythm on Merseyside.
Speaking on the Stick To Football podcast, Dalglish—who netted 170 times in 511 games for Liverpool between 1977 and 1990—said: “The first thing he needs to do is what he’s doing at the moment.”
“He’s great at taking the ball into the feet, he’ll open himself up and the pass has beat you but he’s still got control of it. Or he’ll take it the other way back past you to go that way and you’re going this way.”
“He can see what’s in front of him, and once he gets it… I saw Isak the other day, the second-half when he came on I think, and he’s talking to one of the boys about his movement, what he would do.”
“And the boy is sitting and listening to him and once they get on the same wavelength… By the way, that wee fella, he could open a can of soup.”
When asked about how quickly he and Ian Rush formed their legendary strike partnership during the 1980s, Dalglish explained: “It could happen right away.”
“For Rushy, it was training for us. We did it in training, so that’s where you learn it first, isn’t it? I told him, ‘Rushy, if there’s a space there just leave it, I’ll play it and you go for it.’ Simple.”
Dalglish’s comments come in the wake of Jamie Carragher’s scathing assessment of Wirtz following Liverpool’s 1-0 Champions League defeat to Galatasaray on Tuesday. Speaking on CBS Sports, Carragher said: “I’m not watching a top team.”
“Liverpool are not playing football, they are playing basketball. And I told [Arne] Slot this on the first game of the season against Bournemouth. They obviously have a fantastic manager.”
“Liverpool last season were a top team, but also a workmanlike team, which they’ve sprinkled a bit of stardust on in terms of the transfers they have brought in. And they haven’t gained anything going forward, but they’ve lost a lot defensively.”
“I think for the manager now, he now needs to really earn his money. He did last season, by winning the Premier League, but there are few problems he has got to fix.”
“It will be really interesting how he does about it, because he spent a lot of money on certain players. Right now, the balance of the team is not right, and the obvious one that stands out is Florian Wirtz, who is just not at the races at all.”
“He’s a young boy, coming to a new league, and has plenty of time to go. But right now, he needs to come out of the team, Liverpool go back to what they were last season, and try to build some confidence and some stability. Right now it looks like a mess
Wirtz will be aiming to turn things around when Liverpool visit Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on Saturday evening. After back-to-back defeats to Crystal Palace and Galatasaray, the Reds remain two points ahead of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table. However, they’ll need to regain form quickly if they hope to successfully defend their title.
