Florian Wirtz's Struggles at Liverpool: A Cautionary Tale

Robert Huth has seen enough Premier League football to trust his instincts. And when he looks at Florian Wirtz at Liverpool, he doesn’t like what he sees.

“I really find it hard to see how this can still turn around,” said the former Leicester City title-winner on All Out Football’s podcast In The Mixer, offering a stark assessment of the 23-year-old’s situation at Anfield.

This is not a casual opinion from the sidelines. Huth played 322 times in the Premier League, won the title in that remarkable 2016 season with Leicester, collected 19 caps for Germany and went to a World Cup on home soil. He understands the league’s demands. In his view, the step from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool may simply be too big for Wirtz in one crucial area.

“Obviously a good player,” Huth acknowledged, before cutting straight to the point. “He has real problems with his physicality.”

Liverpool did not buy a project on the cheap. They paid a base fee of 125 million euros in 2025 to prise Wirtz from Leverkusen, a statement signing meant to anchor the club’s next attacking era. Instead, his first season on Merseyside drifted somewhere between promise and frustration. Flashes of class, yes. But nowhere near the level a nine-figure fee demands.

Now comes the reset. A second year at Anfield. A new coach in Andoni Iraola, tasked with turning Wirtz from expensive luxury into indispensable playmaker. This is supposed to be the season of his definitive breakthrough.

Wirtz, for his part, insists the story is not as bleak as Huth paints it.

“I would say that I have developed in almost every area. Definitely when it comes to my physical level,” he told RTL and Sky recently, pushing back against the criticism. He spoke of the daily grind at Liverpool, of a training environment that offers no hiding place.

“Even in training, I have to push myself almost to my limits every day, simply because there are players here who are also fully committed in training every day and have that kind of quality. You also have to be at a good level yourself,” the Germany international explained.

He sees progress. Huth sees warning signs.

The former centre-back’s doubts hardened after Liverpool’s opening Premier League fixture at Newcastle United, a 2-2 draw that only deepened his concerns about Wirtz’s adaptation.

“His body language is also a bit poor,” Huth said, unimpressed by the playmaker’s display. To him, the issue is not just physical duels or intensity, but how Wirtz carries himself when the game turns hostile, when the tempo spikes and the spaces close.

Huth doesn’t expect a slow-burn success story. He fears a rapid conclusion.

He doubts Wirtz can turn it around any time soon and even floated the idea of an early exit. “By Christmas they will probably look to move him on if he does not improve, because he has become an expensive problem for Liverpool,” he warned.

So the stakes are already brutally clear. A 125-million-euro signing, a sceptical Premier League veteran, a new manager trying to mould a side in his image — and a ticking clock over Wirtz’s future at Anfield.

If this season is meant to be his breakthrough, it may also be his last chance to prove that Liverpool bought a cornerstone, not a costly mistake.