Jamie Carragher does not think Liverpool’s most expensive signing belongs in the team right now. Working on Sunday evening’s coverage of Liverpool’s 1-0 win at Bournemouth, the former defender turned pundit tore into Florian Wirtz at half-time and returned to the subject in even blunter terms on his own podcast.

“That was really poor. He’s been really poor again,” Carragher said on Sky Sports at the Vitality Stadium.

“It’s just nothing. Nothing is happening there at all.”

The Liverpool legend went further after the final whistle, using his podcast to argue that Wirtz should be dropped for the visit of Manchester City.

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“That was one of the worst displays I’ve seen him give in a Liverpool shirt,” Carragher said on his podcast.

“Wirtz would not be in my Liverpool team.”

A £116m gamble looking heavier by the week

Wirtz arrived at Anfield in the summer of 2025 in a British-record deal, Liverpool paying £116m to Bayer Leverkusen up front and in add-ons for the Germany international. He signed a five-year contract on the back of a season in which he had helped Leverkusen to the Bundesliga title.

Fifteen months on, the return does not match the outlay.

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“I know I’m seen as a big critic of Wirtz but I don’t think there’s been much criticism whatsoever if you think about what Liverpool spent on him and what they thought they were getting,” he said on Sky Sports.

Andoni Iraola, appointed as head coach in June to replace Arne Slot, has kept faith with the 23-year-old through a stuttering start to the season. Iraola’s team is winning matches, but the German has yet to look like the player who lifted the Bundesliga in his final year with Leverkusen.

Falk: Bayern would be first port of call if Wirtz wanted a Bundesliga return

Wirtz’s difficulties have reopened a familiar file at Bayern Munich, who tried and failed to sign him before he chose Liverpool. According to Christian Falk, the German champions are not chasing him now, but the door is not shut either.

“Of course, if Florian Wirtz were, at some point in the future, interested in making a return to the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich would be the first team he’d talk to,” Falk told Get Football News Germany.

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Liverpool are not planning to sell in January, with the club convinced the player they paid a British-record fee for will come good under Iraola. That intention is likely to be tested: reports in the last week point to Anfield expecting bids in the January window if his form does not turn.

Manchester City visit Anfield next in the Premier League.

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