Liverpool full-back Andy Robertson has leapt to the defence of his new team-mate Florian Wirtz, who has come under increasing scrutiny after struggling to make a significant impact since his £116 million ($154.4m) switch from Bayer Leverkusen. Robertson has pointed to a number of key impacts made by Wirtz and made a bold prediction about the remainder of the season.

Liverpool’s class of 2025 have earned an unfavourable comparison to the Paris Saint-Germain team that once boasted Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. The Reds have assembled a star-studded cast of their own at Anfield, splashing out £240 million ($320m) on deals for Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, but are still waiting for their fearsome attacking unit to click.

Mohamed Salah has been branded “greedy” and accused of “hating” Florian Wirtz after passing up the chance to tee up his team-mate for what would have been a first competitive Liverpool goal for the German playmaker. Said incident occurred during the closing stages of the Reds’ 5-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League - with the potential there for that result to have been even more emphatic.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank compared Xavi Simons to Liverpool's Florian Wirtz as the playmakers continue to struggle for form since swapping the Bundesliga for the Premier League in the summer. Simons left RB Leipzig to complete his move to Spurs, while Wirtz joined the Reds from former German champions Bayer Leverkusen as the Merseyside broke the British transfer record at that time.

Jurgen Klopp has, having previously criticised the spending power of Manchester City, addressed Liverpool’s elaborate recruitment drive in the summer of 2025 that saw them smash records while splashing out £450 million ($603m). Ex-Reds boss Klopp claims that he would “never, ever” have asked for that kind of money from the Anfield board during his time at the helm.