Overview
- Jamie Carragher publicly questioned Florian Wirtz's level and market value after Liverpool's season opener, calling him "an ordinary player" and saying he is not worth £110 million.
- Simon Rolfes, Wirtz's former sporting director at Bayer Leverkusen, responded at the Rheinischer Fußballgipfel by defending Wirtz's quality and saying he expects the player to have a good season.
- Wirtz described his first Liverpool year as difficult but formative, saying he has grown physically, learned from the experience, and taken "a lot of positives" from the past season.
- The player revealed he recently had his first phone call with Germany's new coach Jürgen Klopp, a fresh line of contact that may affect his national-team standing.
- Wirtz made 49 appearances with 17 goal contributions in 2025–26, a stat line critics cite as underwhelming given his transfer fee, and his role as a central anchor remains the key tactical question for Liverpool going forward.