The criticism of Florian Wirtz is seriously starting to heat up as Liverpool’s big-money signing continues to struggle on the Premier League stage.

Over the weekend, ten-man Liverpool were beaten by Manchester City, with Wirtz coming under fire for producing another quiet display, as Paul Scholes delivered some stinging criticism.

Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Football, Scholes stated that Wirtz is ‘like a kid playing men’s football’, which is a damning statement for a player who cost over £100 million for then-champions of England.

Paul Scholes questions Florian Wirtz’ desire to compete for Liverpool

The issue with Wirtz is that the verbal pelters are coming from all over the place, and they are all pretty much saying the same thing.

You could argue that Scholes has his Manchester United-biased glasses on and is just taking shots at Wirtz, but Jamie Carragher has been ultra-critical of the German.

Scholes even referenced some of Carragher’s comments, and how he is right in saying that Andoni Iraola should ‘take him out of the team.’

Liverpool take on LASK in the Champions League on Wednesday night, with a few injuries still lingering around the squad, especially in the attacking areas.

So, even if Iraola was thinking of dropping Wirtz, he probably can’t because he doesn’t have many options available to him right now.

“You can be aggressive in different ways,” said Scholes amid accusations that Wirtz is too nice. “You can be aggressive like Nicky (Butt) was aggressive when he played, or you can be aggressive in the way you play football.

“Wirtz, we think he is a top-quality player. They paid £100-odd million for him. But does he want it in his head enough to win games of football for Liverpool? Is he interested in goals or assists? He seems interested in all the other little bits outside of it, which, to be fair, he isn’t doing that well.

“He looks like a little kid playing men’s football. Wirtz has been the for one year now? It’s just not happening for him.

“And, as Jamie (Carragher) said, ‘Take him out of the team.’ Sometimes, when you are £115m, you have to play every week. But sometimes it’s nice, even from the player’s point of view, to be left out, have a little look, ‘Right, come on.’ It’s like a little kick up the backside for you.

“If you are brought in for that money. You have to be winning games for your team. I think of Frank Lampard; he won his team games of football. By being aggressive. Scoring goals and wanting to score goals every week.

“It doesn’t look like he has that bit of… I don’t think it hurts him enough. See, like De Bruyne. If he didn’t score a goal or make a goal in a game, I think he would be devastated.”

Wirtz numbers at Liverpool

What makes life even more difficult for Wirtz is that there was a lot of hype around his signing, given his success with Bayern Leverkusen under Xabi Alonso.

But there have been very few moments for the Liverpool fans to cheer, and he can’t even score goals during bad moments to try and give himself a bit of a leg up.

It remains to be seen how everything pans out for the German international, but so far, it’s not making for great reading.

• Wirtz’ games for Liverpool: 56
• Goals: 7
• Assists: 11