Jamie Carragher has urged Arne Slot to drop one Liverpool player immediately following the Reds’ 1-0 defeat to Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday night. In what many are calling the Dutchman’s worst performance since taking over last summer, a controversial penalty converted by Victor Osimhen proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
On another night, the margin could have been far more damaging for the Premier League champions, who once again struggled to cope with simple long balls in behind and looked as though the eleven players on the pitch had never played together before. Disjointed, sluggish, and, at times, looking like rabbits in headlights, their last two defeats have felt inevitable after early-season form often relied on last-gasp goals to scrape by.
That said, there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet. The Reds remain top of the Premier League and still have several new players to integrate. But something must change – Slot needs to settle on his formation and preferred lineup in the coming weeks to bring stability. That could mean leaving out one of the club’s most expensive assets.
Carragher Urges Slot To Take Florian Wirtz Out of the Mess
One change Carragher believes could help fix Liverpool’s situation is dropping Florian Wirtz from the starting line-up. The German international arrived over the summer for a then-British transfer record fee of £116 million from Bayer Leverkusen. The attacking midfielder was left out for the 1-0 Merseyside derby win over Everton but returned to the side against Crystal Palace.
He has yet to register a goal or assist in either the Premier League or Champions League, and has often struggled to keep up with the pace of play – looking a shadow of the fleet-footed, intricate player who lit up the Bundesliga and won back-to-back Player of the Year awards. “Right now I don’t think the balance of the team is right and the obvious one that stands out is Florian Wirtz,” Carragher said, before continuing (watch the full segment below):
“He’s just not at the races at all. He’s a young boy coming into a new league – he has got plenty of time to go as a Liverpool player, but right now, I think he needs to come out of the team.
“Liverpool need to go back to what they were last season and then go from there and build some confidence, build some defensive solidity. Because right now it is a mess. It’s not the losses, it is not the defeats. This has been coming from day one.”
Slot’s side face a trip to Chelsea in their next Premier League fixture, but some supporters may already be wishing the days away, hoping for the respite that comes with the international break that follows.
The general feeling is that Liverpool will come good eventually, with last term’s glory providing sufficient basis for that. But there’s clearly a lot of teething issues to start the 2025/26 campaign.