Steven Gerrard has agreed with former teammate Jamie Carragher in calls for Florian Wirtz to be taken out of Liverpool's starting lineup. The attacking midfielder has struggled to make an impact in his time at Anfield.
Wirtz joined the club in a deal rising to a potential £116 million in the summer of 2025. He has made 57 appearances for Liverpool, scoring seven goals and providing 12 assists. So far this season, the 23-year-old has failed to find the net and has two assists in eight appearances in all competitions. One of those came in Wednesday night's 6-3 away win over LASK in the Champions League.
Gerrard backs Wirtz to turn it around
Despite failing to impress so far this season, Wirtz, alongside fellow big money signing Bradley Barcola, retains the full backing of manager Andoni Iraola. Gerrard has now given his thoughts on what should be done to help the player.
Speaking on Stick to Football, he said: "I'm not denying that he's underperforming and that we should have seen an awful lot more in terms of the price tag. I just think that there's a chance, and it's happened previously, where players can turn it around, I think he's got the talent to turn it around."
"His confidence is shot at Liverpool at the moment, you can see it when you watch him, giving the ball away, simple balls that he wouldn't give away, and at times he's maybe not shown when he's full of confidence. I watch him for Germany, he's a different player, a completely different player."
"He just seems to be playing with his shoulders back, a different energy, getting on the ball, he's turning in pockets of space, he's actually executing in the final third in terms of his passes, he's getting assists, he's getting goals. You've seen it at Leverkusen, I know it's a different level but you're watching a different player."
Solution to help Wirtz rediscover form
The Liverpool legend outlined what he believes would be the best course of action to help the German rediscover his confidence and form.
"Sometimes, and I've had dips in forms and lack of confidence for a period of time, and the best thing for me was to come out of the team for a period of time," Gerrard added. "If someone plays in your position, you start going 'he might take my place' and you get that little bit of fear. You have to start with your training performances, get more consistency in your training and then it starts coming out in the games."
"To write one of Germany's best talents off at 22, If I look at Philippe Coutinho, he was at Espanyol at 22, no one wanted him, only really Rafa Benitez knew Coutinho at 22, then he went the other way and exploded. I think you need to find a solution."
"The problem Liverpool have got is (Hugo) Ekitike is missing (Alexander) Isak has been a bit flakey of late, (Cody) Gakpo is injured, so at the moment you probably can't do that, but when you start getting a few bodies back, I don't think it would do him any harm to come out and look in. He needs to be looking at his clips in the training and in the games, the balls he's giving away, he needs his staff and his manager now to grab him."
"He's a talent, he's young, you can't give up on these people and say because he was £110 million he's gone and brush him aside, he needs help, he needs support."
Carragher echoes the call
The idea that Wirtz should be taken out of the team echoes that of Jamie Carragher, who has sent a message to Iraola. Speaking on Sky Sports, he 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."
Liverpool are back in action on Saturday afternoon as they take on Brentford away in the Premier League (3pm kick-off).
