Florian Wirtz: Pressure Mounts for Liverpool's New Signing

Liverpool did not spend big on Florian Wirtz to watch him drift through games. Two seasons. That is roughly the window Dietmar Hamann believes the German has to prove he belongs at Anfield – and even that, he suggests, might be generous.

Hamann, speaking to GOAL in association with Betinia NJ, cut straight to the point about what Wirtz needs from this campaign and when the exit noise could begin.

“He's got to start playing well. He has to start influencing the game.”

Right now, in Hamann’s eyes, Wirtz is floating. A luxury player without the luxury output.

“I think he's a player who floats. He's probably not got that respect from the other players that sometimes maybe he can stop defending, because I think you've got to give him certain liberties and a certain freedom, that you've got players who win the ball back for him.

“And the players don't mind doing it if when he does get the ball 10 times, six, seven, eight times, something's going to happen. That's just not the case.”

The German insists Wirtz is not hiding. If anything, he is working too hard in the wrong direction.

“Now he's working very hard going backwards. I think sometimes he's doing too much. He wants to help the team because he sees that he can influence the game going forward.

“So I think the balance in his game has been wrong, but he will only get the respect of the players when he starts influencing the game going forward. He's not there to win balls, he's there to set up goals and score goals.”

Last season offered only flashes. A handful of games where Wirtz looked like the player Liverpool thought they were buying. For Hamann, that is nowhere near the standard required for a marquee signing in England’s top flight.

“I think there were maybe a handful of games where he did that last season. And it's simply not enough.

“And obviously, everybody's talking about the physical side of the Premier League. Yes, it's more physical. And some of the best players took some time to adapt. I think [Juan Sebastian] Veron came lauded as the best midfield player. I think he lasted one season and went back to Italy. So some just can't do it or don't want to do it.”

Hamann initially preached patience. The first few months, he felt, were an adaptation period for a talent “too good to fail”. But the clock kept ticking.

“And obviously, the longer it goes on now, because I said the first two or three months, give him time. I said he's too good to fail.

“But once it went past Christmas, I said, I don't think he's going to crack it anymore because it's too long now. Because expectations are not getting any less.”

This season has not eased the tension. Wirtz was substituted after an hour in Liverpool’s opening game. Hamann sees a decisive stretch coming quickly.

“I think if he doesn't start playing well, he came off again in the first game after 60 minutes. I think if he doesn't start influencing games in the next three or four weeks, I think by the time we have that international break, which is longer this year, I think we have a lot of paper talk, a lot of discussions, whether the club should have bought him, which is obviously too late because he's there.

“And maybe him thinking, ‘well, maybe this is not for me’.

“I think something will happen because for a player of that magnitude, of that stature, the amount of money he costs, it's simply not enough. You've got to find a solution somehow, maybe even in winter, if things don't get better.”

Where does Wirtz actually fit?

The debate around Wirtz is not just about form. It is also about identity. Is he a classic No.10? Is he a wide forward who drifts in from the left? Liverpool have yet to find a role that consistently unlocks him.

Hamann, a Champions League winner with Liverpool, does not see the position argument as a shield.

“I know everybody said how well he does in training and all this. And there does come a point, and I think the point was last year after Christmas, where somebody should have said, ‘listen lad, either you do it or in the summer, we see what's happening in the World Cup, maybe we've got to find a solution’. Because they can't wait forever.

“He was bought to be the main man. And I wouldn't blame it on the position that he plays on the left. I think a year earlier, I said in the summer he sees him as a number 10.

“But if you've got a number 10 who doesn't create the chances or doesn't score enough goals, then obviously somebody else has to play - especially with [Bradley] Barcola coming in. It's a tricky situation for players in England.”

Liverpool signed Wirtz to be a difference-maker, not a tactical puzzle. With pressure mounting, competition increasing and a long international break looming as a natural flashpoint, the question is no longer about his potential.

It is how long a club of Liverpool’s ambition can afford to wait for it.