Carragher PRAISES Wirtz but media launch new campaign to discredit Liverpool ace
Jamie Carragher finally had something positive to say about Florian Wirtz, though it came at the same time as Sky Sports and The Athletic both launched attempts to discredit the Liverpool playmaker.
Carragher has been amongst Wirtz’s most vocal critics this season, repeatedly bashing the player and insisting he should be dropped.
Thankfully for Liverpool fans, Reds boss Andoni Iraola doesn’t take orders from Carragher, and Wirtz has now bagged back-to-back assists against LASK and Brentford.
When helping Liverpool to end Brentford’s unbeaten start to the season on Saturday, Wirtz made history when becoming the first player to create nine chances in a Premier League match since Dejan Kulusevski back in September of 2024.
What’s more, all of the nine chances Wirtz created were from open play.
When analysing Liverpool’s victory on Monday Night Football, Carragher finally had a nice word or two to say about the German, and particularly, his assist for Victor Munoz’s equalising goal.
The pundit said: “[Wirtz] gets his assist here, and the assist is fantastic, not because of the pass, it’s from what comes before it.”
While showing a clip of Brentford crowding Liverpool on the side of the pitch, Carragher continued: “They have a situation where they’ve got a 4v3 in a really tight area, so don’t forget they’re a man down.
“If you don’t win [the ball] there you’re going to have a major problem, and the problem is in the centre of the pitch.
“So when Liverpool get out through [Rio] Ngumoha who was fantastic when he came on. But you’ve got Kristoffer Ajer and he’s thinking normally what Brentford would do is jump in there (to close Wirtz down), but no, you’re a man down.
“Fantastic touch [from Wirtz], but that is fantastic from Victor Munoz, absolutely superb from him and gets Liverpool back in the game.
“But now I want to look at this from Wirtz’s point of view. We’ve highlighted already on this show about Youri Tielemans looking over his left shoulder.
“He’s now aware where Ajer is and he’s got the space. What makes this even more special and much better than Tielemans is lots of players can scan, it’s a big part of the game, but you can scan before the ball is on it’s way to you.
“What makes this extra special now is the ball is passed, he checks his right shoulder, checks his left shoulder, and the ball is on him, and that first touch… the scanning and the first touch is the assist.
“Not so much the pass, because that’s a simple pass for Wirtz. So the scanning, understanding the space he had, the left-foot touch was actually why he deserved the assist.”
Sky Sports, Athletic discredit Florian Wirtz
But while Carragher praised Wirtz, his words came during a wider segment that called into question the importance and relevance of the chances created metric.
Naturally, this has only become a talking point for Sky Sports since Wirtz’s nine chances created versus Brentford means he now leads all Premier League players in that category.
It was a similar story over at The Athletic, with a piece published on Monday questioning: ‘Are Wirtz’s numbers deceptive?’
The report added: ‘One explanation is that none of the chances he created against Brentford really sticks in the mind.
‘Indeed, seven of those nine were from either sideways or backwards passes, and the player taking the shot did most of the heavy lifting.
‘Even his assist, which was with one of the forward balls, didn’t exactly lay it on a plate for the scorer: he passed nicely to Victor Munoz, who then carried the ball for about 25 yards before chopping inside and finishing neatly.’
Until this weekend, leading the chances created category was seen as a positive. Now that Wirtz holds top spot, it’s suddenly in need of greater scrutiny. When another player who didn’t cost £116m leads the category, it’ll be business as usual.
