Raging Neville tells Liverpool let-down he ‘needs a rocket up him’ and ‘needs sorting out’
Gary Neville has gone in both barrels on a Liverpool underachiever he feels needs to start asking some very serious questions of himself after an almost anonymous performance during Sunday’s 2-2 draw against Newcastle United at St James’ Park.
The Reds were able to salvage a point from their opening weekend trip to the North-East after Dominik Szoboszlai coolly slotted home a 90+6 minute penalty, awarded after Lewis Hall had mistimed a challenge on Victor Munoz.
The point ensures Andoni Iraola picked up something from his first game in charge of the Reds, while also preserving the Spaniard’s unbeaten run from his previous visits to St James’ Park.
However, the point Liverpool collected was not without its problems.
Daniel Sturridge has already made it clear that the Reds need to address a “three-year problem” with their side that was exposed time and again by Newcastle on Sunday, suggesting his former side may have blundered by not signing a £39m star.
Neville, meanwhile, also thinks Liverpool need more from some of their current stars, with the performance of Florian Wirtz, in particular, irking the Sky Sports pundit.
Taking the £116m former Bayer Leverkusen star to task and £125m Alexander Isak to task, Neville bemoaned: “They’re going to have to start playing sooner or later or else, to be fair, they’re going to get quite a lot of criticism.
“For a start, they’re too nice, and if you’re going to be nice, you’d better be incredible at football.”
“I don’t see the tenacity in Wirtz in particular. I just see a nice player moving around the pitch, not really ever looking like he’s busting a gut to do anything.
“Now, that can happen. Sometimes players have that flow about them, but I want to put a rocket up him. I want to put a rocket up him because there’s ability there, there’s talent there, the understanding of his position.”
“Wirtz, he needs to sort himself out. Enough’s enough now; we’ve talked about him enough. He’s young, and he’s come to a different country – and I’m all for willing him on.”
Neville claims Wirtz has had a free ride at Liverpool
Neville continued: “They have both had a bit of a free ride. Obviously Isak was injured last season but Arne Slot loses his job, and Wirtz has played like that, so let’s be clear, this has got me to start some real focus now.
“I can see a real player there, but I can’t keep watching this stuff, and he’s been subbed after an hour,r and they need a goal, but they’re 2-1 down, so no, that’s not right.”
Neville thinks Wirtz and Isak could still form an excellent partnership, but need to get their heads in the game.
“Sometimes I think he [Wirtz] moves around too much. Sometimes I don’t think he’s close enough to his striker; I don’t think he understands where the game’s going to be won and lost.
“When I played football, and No 10s sometimes drifted too deep, or too wide, they would get a right rollicking off our manager.
“The game’s not going to be won out there, the game’s not going to be won back there, the game’s going to be won in the final third, in and around the box.
“Combining with your striker, getting crosses in, getting little passes, getting little side passes down the side of the centre-backs, being close enough to your forward so that you can combine with him. And I don’t see him combining with Isak.
“I just feel like Wirtz has got to think about being involved in the build-up less and think about being a second striker. He’s got to think about his output and what he needs to do, and that is feed Isak with little passes down the side of centre-backs. He might only get the ball two or three times in that position in tight games where teams are lying deep.”
Carragher brands Wirtz a ‘£40m player’
That criticism comes just days after Jamie Carragher suggested Wirtz looked little more than a £40m player.
In his column for The Telegraph, Carragher said of the 23-year-old: “Florian Wirtz faces a make-or-break season, but more is at stake than his Liverpool career as he belatedly seeks to establish himself in the Premier League.
“English football needs Wirtz to succeed as much as Andoni Iraola, the new coach at Anfield… How Wirtz fares at the start of this season will indicate whether he will be viewed as the right signing in the wrong era for Liverpool, moving to Merseyside just as the Premier League’s preferred style reverted to set-piece dominance.
“The jury is out on whether he possesses the tools to overcome the physical challenge. I must admit, I have my doubts… Even at his best, Wirtz has looked “neat and tidy” rather than the killer in and around the penalty box one would have expected given his fee and reputation.
“He has resembled a useful squad addition for about £40m rather than a game-changer who cost £115m… Given the repercussions across the side and for his club’s hopes of an immediate recovery after a torrid 12 months, Wirtz simply must perform to the standard of a top-class Liverpool player. Last year he was afforded months to show up. This season he will probably be given only a few weeks.”
