Jamie Carragher has called on Andoni Iraola to drop Florian Wirtz from Liverpool's starting line-up following the German's underwhelming display in the defeat to Manchester City. Enzo Maresca's side won 3-0 after Ryan Gravenberch's dismissal shortly past the hour mark, with Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki on the scoresheet for the away side.
Carragher criticises Wirtz again
Carragher believes Wirtz is not contributing sufficiently for the Reds and has once more criticised the Germany international's recent showings. 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."
Wirtz fails to step up
Carragher noted that Wirtz played well for Germany under Jurgen Klopp but struggled against Manchester City. "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."
Gravenberch preferred
Carragher also argued that Wirtz should not be playing ahead of Gravenberch. "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."
No goal threat
Carragher added that the £116.5m signing does not pose a threat in the final third for Liverpool. 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."
