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Jamie Carragher’s condemnation of Florian Wirtz has continued, with the pundit getting himself embroiled in a heated exchange across social media with a Liverpool supporters’ channel and with the Sky Sports man accusing fans of twisting his words about the £116m German.
Wirtz has struggled to find his consistent best since arriving at Anfield in what was, at the time, a British record deal worth up to €140m ($158m).
While he has seven G/A (two scored, five assists) from 15 games this season, bringing his tally to 24 G/A (nine scored, 15 assists) from 64 games for Liverpool overall, he has not yet hit the same heights as witnessed at Bayer Leverkusen.
As a result, Carragher has gone on record on multiple occasions to demand that Liverpool drop Wirtz from the team, claiming he is “nowhere near good enough” following the recent home defeat to Manchester City.
The pundit has also asked Liverpool to take Wirtz off set-piece duties, while also making it clear that the player would not be in his Liverpool team, while also making it clear that he does not think the German has a higher level to reach, as he’s already showing exactly what he’s capable of.
However, not all associated with Liverpool agree with Carragher’s assessment and, after the pundit suggested the 23-year-old got “lucky” with his scuffed finish to put the Reds 2-0 up during Sunday’s 3-1 victory at Crystal Palace, an account on X called ‘The Anfield Talk’ posted in reply: “Carragher once again doing his best to downplay our own players.”
Not a typical wallflower, Carragher quickly sniped back at that comment by accusing ‘E-Reds’ of once again taking his comments ‘out of context’ to fuel their own agendas.
“Not at all, Wirtz had a bit of luck with his goal & was unlucky a few weeks back,” Carragher wrote. “Barcola was poor until he got the assist.
“You & a few other E-reds use my quotes to get yourself engagement. Give your own opinions. And don’t just play to the gallery for likes & retweets.”
It did not stop there, either, with The Anfield Talk then asking Carragher if he would make the same points about Chelsea pair Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer and when asked to explain why he considered Wirtz’s goal “lucky”.
In reply, Carragher stated: “His goal was too lucky as he hit it on to his left with his right. It would apply to them, yes, but I don’t think they’d have so many cranks bothered about it. If our 100M men do what they’ve done so far for Chelsea, we’d be delighted.”
Carragher, though, would not let things lie, digging up a post from the same The Anfield Talk account from earlier in the week when they declared that Liverpool’s No.2 goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili should be ‘given a chance’ at Selhurst Park after some encouraging recent displays from the Georgian.
The fact that regular No.1 Alisson Becker then went on to produce a goalkeeper masterclass during the win was an opportunity Carragher could not resist reminding them of.
Putting the argument to bed once and for all, he concluded: “Best sticking to using my opinions than using your own.”
To give Carragher his due, he was one of three men who waxed lyrical about Alexander Isak after his goal on Sunday, with the pundit explaining why the Swede is now the man most likely of Liverpool’s three £100m-plus men to vindicate his very sizeable fee.
On the subject of Alisson, it’s understood that the experienced Brazilian has now performed a U-turn with regard to signing a new deal at Anfield.
Steven Gerrard also wants Liverpool to go back on their original plan not to hand another in-form Reds star a new deal.