5 Liverpool players Jamie Carragher has criticised after Florian Wirtz reaction

Florian Wirtz has become the latest Liverpool player to be heavily criticised by Jamie Carragher as the Sky Sports pundit suggested he was worth half what Liverpool paid.

Wirtz’s £116m move is looking increasingly inflated and even with a new manager, many of the similar problems appeared in Liverpool’s opening game.

As such, Carragher laid into the 23-year-old German, suggesting he was a “neat and tidy footballer” but not one worth what Liverpool paid.

“This thing that it takes people a year to settle in the Premier League, I think is a bit of a myth. I don’t think there’s too many examples where it does,” said Carragher.

“I’ve always seen this coming. When people are saying [Wirtz] has got to go to No 10, that means Szoboszlai’s got to be in the team and he’s not a central midfield player.

“I thought this would come up in six weeks, I think it’s coming up right now. I don’t see where he fits in at all, really.

“What’s Iraola going to do with Wirtz? You can’t keep going with it, it’s not working,

“It didn’t work last season. Liverpool last season conceded 78 goals, 53 in the Premier League, the most they’ve ever conceded in the Premier League. And all of a sudden it’s all about buying wingers?

“I’m not sure where he fits. I almost thought you could put him in a pocket from the left, where he plays for Germany, but Iraola loves wingers, he wants players who’ve got energy up and down the flank.

“I don’t think we’re seeing a massive underperformance. I think what we’ve seen for a year is probably what he is, which is a neat and tidy footballer. Not a player who should be worth £110m, someone who probably should be £50m-60m, something like that. Neat and tidy, lovely touch. I’m not sure what people are expecting.”

But Wirtz is not the first Liverpool player to be put into Carragher’s crosshairs.

Mo Salah

One of Carragher’s biggest blasts was aimed at Mo Salah after the Egyptian gave a rare interview to state his unhappiness at being made the scapegoat for Liverpool’s woes.

Following the club’s run of poor form, Salah told the world that he felt he was being thrown under the bus and Carragher labelled it as a “disgrace”.

He accused Salah of a calculated move and not an emotional outburst. He said Salah had done four mixed zone interviews in the past and each time it had been “choreographed with him and his agent to cause maximum damage and strengthen his own position.”

In fairness to Carragher, he largely got this one right with Salah’s Liverpool career coming to an underwhelming end.

Trent Alexander-Arnold

Alexander-Arnold became a polarising figure amongst the Liverpool contingent in his final season for the club.

With it becoming increasingly clear he was moving for free to Madrid, fans were split about whether their academy product should be booed. Carragher played both sides, something he himself admitted.

He first accused Alexander-Arnold of looking at himself like a brand, saying that was a deciding factor behind his desire to join Madrid. The former centre back then did a 180 by suggesting Liverpool fans should not boo their own players.

In the end, Carragher’s main gripe came from a fundamental difference in opinion.

For Carragher, there is no bigger club in the world than Liverpool but for anyone born away from Merseyside, there are plenty.

Alexander-Arnold being a local lad and still wanting to leave is what appeared to rub Carragher up the wrong way and his criticism became sharper as the days counted down to the player’s departure.

Loris Karius

On occasion, players will bite back at criticism and one such example is Karius.

The Liverpool goalkeeper actually took aim at Carragher’s colleague Neville, only to then let in another clanger against West Ham.

Having failed to save a tame Dimitri Payet free kick, Carragher suggested it was best the keeper “shut up and just do your job.”

“The ‘keeper got criticism last week and has come out and had a pop at Gary Neville and mentioned me and my advice would be: ‘Shut up and just do your job,'” he said.

“And doing your job and answering your critics would be saving that [free kick]. That is not difficult, I think the positioning is fine, he gets across and reads it well and he is there.

“And his wrists are not strong enough. It is not even in the corner and Payet has not even hit it that hard.

“I have bigger problems with goals like that than mistakes, because mistakes happen, a ‘keeper will drop one or do something stupid, every ‘keeper does that.

“That to me, you look at goals like that and think: ‘It should not go in, is the ‘keeper good enough?'”

The answer to that question was emphatically answered two years later when Karius, albeit with concussion, cost Liverpool the 2018 Champions League final.

Ibrahima Konate

Konate had a notable drop-off last season and that dip was made all the more obvious by Carragher pointing it out to the world.

In April, and with Konate heading for a free exit, Carragher let loose on the Frenchman, saying he was “awful”.

“People have criticised Van Dijk for his performances this season, but I think it’s been harsh,” he said. “He plays every game, and the fella next to him has been awful all season – and poor again tonight.

“Konate makes a mistake every game, so that’s not easy to play alongside.”

Dominik Szoboszlai

As Casemiro proved, a player can overcome a Carragher bashing and a Liverpool example of that very thing comes in the form of Szoboszlai.

In February 2025, Carragher described himself as “not Dominik Szoboszlai’s biggest fan”, criticising him for a lack of goals from the number 10 position.

A season later though and Szoboszlai developed into Liverpool’s best player and now Carragher is saying the Hungarian should start in the 10 over Wirtz.