Florian Wirtz's Struggles at Liverpool: Time Running Out

Florian Wirtz was supposed to be the crown jewel of Liverpool’s rebuild. Right now, he is a very expensive question mark.

Two seasons. That’s the rough time frame being floated for the German to prove he belongs at the heart of Liverpool’s future. And according to Dietmar Hamann, even that might be generous.

The former Liverpool midfielder, speaking to GOAL, did not dance around the issue. Wirtz, he said, simply has to start affecting games.

“He’s got to start playing well. He has to start influencing the game,” Hamann insisted, pointing to a player who, in his eyes, drifts through matches rather than grabs them.

Hamann painted the picture of a talent caught between roles. Wirtz is working hard, perhaps too hard, chasing back and filling gaps, but without delivering what he was bought for at the other end of the pitch.

“I think he's a player who floats,” Hamann said. “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 effort is there. The end product is not. Hamann even suggested Wirtz is overcompensating without the ball because he knows he isn’t shaping games with it.

“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’t 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.”

Hamann’s verdict on last season is blunt: only “a handful of games” where Wirtz really delivered. For a marquee signing, that is miles off the mark.

The Premier League’s physicality is the usual caveat, and Hamann acknowledged it, recalling how even elite imports have failed to adapt.

He namechecked Juan Sebastian Veron, who arrived in England as one of the world’s most celebrated midfielders but lasted just a season before returning to Italy.

“Yes, it's more physical,” Hamann said. “Some of the best players took some time to adapt… So some just can't do it or don't want to do it.”

At first, Hamann was among those preaching patience. Two or three months to settle, no panic. That grace period has long gone.

“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.”

The new campaign has done little to ease the scrutiny. Wirtz was substituted after an hour in Liverpool’s opening game, and Hamann believes the clock is now ticking loudly.

“If he doesn't start playing well… 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’.”

Hamann even floated the prospect of a drastic solution if nothing changes.

“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.”

That kind of language around a player of Wirtz’s profile underlines how serious the situation has become.

There is also the unresolved issue of where, exactly, he should play. Is he a classic No.10, or a wide forward cutting in from the left? The debate has followed him since he arrived.

Wirtz has sparked “lively” discussion over his best role, but Hamann is clear: the position can’t be used 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.”

Liverpool didn’t sign Wirtz to be a squad option. They signed him to be the central figure in their attack.

“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.”

Barcola’s arrival only sharpens the edge. Competition is real. Reputations do not guarantee minutes, never mind status.

For Wirtz, the message is stark. The adaptation period is over. The excuses are gone. The next few weeks will not just shape his season at Anfield – they may decide whether his Liverpool story ever truly starts.