Jamie Carragher Says Liverpool’s £116m Midfielder Florian Wirtz ‘Needs to Come Out of the Team’

• Jamie Carragher said on the Gary Neville podcast that Florian Wirtz “needs to come out of the team” at Liverpool.
• Wirtz has played 39 Premier League games after his move last summer and averages 0.18 assists, 0.16 goals and 2.2 chances created per 90 minutes.
• A Sky Sports comparison shows Kevin De Bruyne, Cole Palmer and Martin Ødegaard all outperformed Wirtz at the same stage of their time at a new club.

A £116m Playmaker Who Was Meant to Be Liverpool’s Kevin De Bruyne

Jamie Carragher has asked for Florian Wirtz to be dropped. The Sky Sports pundit made the call on the Gary Neville podcast, and his verdict was short: “he needs to come out of the team.”

The remark follows Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City and points at a player signed for a fee of about £116m. Sky Sports has set Carragher’s comments beside the numbers from Wirtz’s first 39 Premier League games, and the numbers do not argue with him.

What Carragher Expected From Wirtz

Carragher did not start from a negative position. He told the podcast he had a specific kind of player in mind when Liverpool paid a fee of about £116m: “I felt he could be the Kevin De Bruyne that at times got Man City over the line.”

That is the standard he has set for Wirtz, and it is the one Sky Sports used to test him. De Bruyne played 39 Premier League games at Manchester City before the comparison was drawn, and Sky Sports found he far outperformed Wirtz in assists, goals and chances created per 90 minutes.

Wirtz sits at 0.18 assists, 0.16 goals and 2.2 chances created per 90 in the Premier League after his move last summer. Put plainly, that is an assist roughly every five and a half full games and a goal roughly every six. De Bruyne’s early City numbers beat all three.

Palmer and Ødegaard Did More at the Same Stage

Sky Sports widened the comparison to two more attacking players who joined new clubs. Cole Palmer at Chelsea and Martin Ødegaard at Arsenal both outperformed Wirtz across their first 39 Premier League games, by the article’s measure.

The expected assists figure tells the same story. Wirtz’s total is lower than the one Ødegaard and Palmer posted at the same point in their time at their clubs. Ødegaard’s start at Arsenal drew similar claims of a slow beginning, a point Sky Sports raises to show Wirtz is not the first expensive playmaker to face that charge.

Among the four players, Wirtz ranks lowest for total carries per 90 minutes. He sits above only Ødegaard for carry distance and carry progression. Last season he barely made the top eight at Liverpool for progressive carries, so the carrying side of his game was thin in his first year too.

Sky Sports does not claim Wirtz has stopped creating. The 2.2 chances created per 90 minutes show a player who still finds teammates in good positions. The charge is that too few of those chances end in assists or goals, and that his involvement in the build-up has slipped.

Last Season’s Numbers Against This Season’s

Wirtz’s production has dropped this season by the measures Sky Sports tracked. Over the period from the start of last season, he ranks in the 90th percentile for chances created among attacking midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues. His assists, in the same group and period, sit below the 50th percentile.

The decline shows up inside the Liverpool squad too. Last season he was in the top 10% of the team for chances created and for touches in the opposition box. This season he has fallen to the top 30 to 40% in both. He is no longer in the top three at Liverpool for chances created per 90.

Why Iraola’s System Is Part of the Argument

The Sky Sports analysis says Wirtz has not yet adapted to English football. It also points to the way Andoni Iraola sets up the team. Against City, Liverpool’s wide players were the main creative outlets in Iraola’s system.

The article says Iraola needs to think about a player who offers more defensive stability in that role. Its conclusion is that Carragher “might be right” to call for Wirtz to come out.

The Sky Sports data supports the direction of Carragher’s argument. Wirtz is short of De Bruyne, the player Carragher named, and short of Palmer and Ødegaard, two other Premier League playmakers, across the same 39-game window.

What Happens to Wirtz Next

Liverpool have a decision to make about a player they signed for a fee above £116m, and a pundit has now said in public that the answer should be to drop him. The numbers give Iraola reasons to hold back and reasons to push on. Wirtz is still in the 90th percentile for chances created across Europe’s top five leagues over the period from the start of last season, which is a high mark for any attacking midfielder in those leagues.

The gap is in what those chances become. His assist figure sits below the 50th percentile in the same group, and his goals per 90 stand at 0.16. The City defeat gave Liverpool supporters a fresh reason to ask whether a creator can stay in the side when the creating has slowed.

Carragher has given his answer and attached the comparison to De Bruyne to it. The next team sheet will show whether Iraola agrees.