£100m+ Liverpool star ‘not good enough’ as Andoni Iraola’s stance on ‘mistake’ signing mooted | OneFootball

It has been suggested that Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola may not be a fan of Florian Wirtz, who has been told he’s “not good enough”.

Iraola has had a mixed start as Liverpool boss, with the Premier League giants clearly a work in progress as they get used to his style.

The Reds impressed on Tuesday night to beat Tottenham 3-1 to advance in the Carabao Cup, but several big-money players have not been performing at their best since joining the club.

This includes Wirtz, who has struggled with the physicality of the Premier League since joining Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen for around £116m.

“‘I wouldn’t have signed him.’ And that’s also my opinion…”

Wirtz was not involved against Tottenham, and former Tottenham scout Bryan King has told Football Insider that Iraola may have a dilemma with the attacking midfielder because he is not his player after former boss Arne Slot signed him.

“These are the mistakes that happen in football. Both ends of the calendar. You know, people miss young players. People buy players for huge amounts of money,” King told Football Insider.

“Jesus Christ, how many times have you heard in the last 30, 40 years that, oh, he’s got that big transfer figure around his neck and he can’t seem to be relaxing. Look at Ian Rush when he went to Italy. The moment he came back, it’s Ian Rush again, isn’t it?

“It’s the environment you’re in. If you feel as though you’re part of it, it’s easy to try and play. But I don’t think this boy, at this moment in time [does.]

“He’s got a manager who didn’t pay the money for him, so, it isn’t the manager’s choice, if you know what I mean. So, you know, it’s a simple situation.

“New manager comes in, the board are going to say, ‘hang on a minute, we’ve got a £116m player, why’s he not playing?’ He’ll turn and say, ‘well, I don’t think he’s good enough. I wouldn’t have signed him.’ And that’s also my opinion.”

Ex-Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock has also revealed his issue with Wirtz, who needs to do more than show “flashes of genius”.

“The big thing with Wirtz for me is we see his ability and flashes of genius, but if you’re paying that kind of money for a player, it cannot be flashes, it’s gotta be consistent, it’s gotta be for longer periods. You’ve got to have more assists, more goals,” Warnock said.

“His intelligence on the ball, we know it’s there.

“And if he learns from that this year, I think Liverpool have got a player in their hands. More consistency and have more of an effect for longer periods of the game.”