Inside Futbol
·14. Oktober 2025
‘Nonsense’ – Ex-PL Star Dismisses High Florian Wirtz Praise

In partnership with
Yahoo sportsInside Futbol
·14. Oktober 2025
Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
Former Premier League star Craig Burley has dismissed former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp’s evaluation of Reds star Florian Wirtz as being a once-in-a-century talent.
Liverpool decided to go big on signing Germany’s highly rated midfielder Wirtz by paying a staggering £116m transfer fee to sign him from Bayer Leverkusen.
Wirtz has featured in seven games in the Premier League, but the German is still searching for his first goal in Liverpool colours.
There have already been question marks about why he cost so much money and had so much hype associated with him, but he has the backing of former Liverpool boss Klopp and current Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann, who stated that Wirtz has created the most chances in the Premier League.
Klopp deems Wirtz to be a once-in-a-century talent, which Burley thinks is a ridiculous statement for the former Reds boss to make.
He added that Jamal Musiala is as talented as Wirtz, if not better, but stressed that the 22-year-old midfielder will hit his form at some point of his Liverpool career when all the talk regarding his form will go away.
Burley also thinks that Naglesmann is someone who does not watch Liverpool games enough, as he pointed out that Wirtz is far from being the leading chance creator in the Premier League, as he himself ranks third in his team in terms of creating opportunities.
“If you watched the games, you know that Florian Wirtz is not the chief creator in the Premier League or indeed the chief creator at Liverpool, which he is not; he is third”, Burley said on ESPN FC (10:15).
“Both of those managers are, one manager [Nagelsmann], who clearly is not watching enough of Liverpool, otherwise he is just waffling on nonsense, and the other one is the ex-manager and they are both talking guff.
“Wirtz is a very good player, don’t get me wrong; this will probably all blow away when he hits his straps at Liverpool, which I am sure he will.
“But to say he is a once-in-a-century talent is just ridiculous because you could argue in Germany, Musiala is as good a player, if not better.
“Is that two in a century then? And that is just in Germany and then the other guy saying he is creating the most amount of chances – I mean, come on!”
Klopp and Nagelsmann are not the only figures backing Wirtz to be successful at Liverpool, as former West Ham United sporting director Tim Steiden revealed that the player has high ambitions for his future.
With a large part of the season remaining to be played, Wirtz will be looking to set his goal to silence his doubters and justify his price tag by putting in solid performances in the games to come.
Live