Carragher declares Liverpool ace is perfect blend of two Man City legends and will embarrass Neville next weekend | OneFootball

A recent Liverpool signing has been favourably compared to two Manchester City icons and all-time greats of the Premier League, and the Reds ace has the perfect opportunity to shove Gary Neville’s past criticism ‘down his throat’ next weekend.

Liverpool spent colossal sums rejuvenating their squad last summer, and twice broke their transfer record. The club’s most expensive ever buy is Alexander Isak at £125m, but before the Swede arrived, the mantle was briefly held by Florian Wirtz.

Liverpool paid £116m (£100m plus £16m in add-ons) to bring the German playmaker to England. For that price, an instant impact was expected and that’s not what was delivered.

Wirtz showed flashes of brilliance but lacked end product in the early going. However, he wasn’t alone in struggling in a red shirt during the campaign and more recently, he’s adapted to his new environment.

Wirtz now has 14 goal contributions to his name this term, 11 of which have come since the beginning of December.

He scored and assisted in the same game for the first time in the Premier League last time out against Newcastle, who are widely regarded as one of the most robust and physical teams in the league.

Wirtz has clearly got to grips with the greater intensity and physicality the Premier League provides on a week-to-week basis.

As such, he’s won Jamie Carragher over who back in October, suggested Wirtz isn’t a “great” player because of how long it was taking him to adapt.

And speaking on Monday Night Football, Carragher not only compared Wirtz to Man City legends, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, but also backed Wirtz to shove past criticism from Gary Neville ‘down his throat’ when Liverpool face City on Sunday.

“Wirtz is getting better all the time,” said Carragher (as quoted by The Daily Mail). “Eventually, the mantle has to be passed on, and there is no doubt the lad has real quality.

“The Premier League has lost Kevin De Bruyne, [but] we have gained Wirtz. We are talking about special players coming into our league. I have watched him a lot and thought about whether he can get to De Bruyne’s level. When I watch Wirtz, I think he could be lovely on the eye like David Silva, but he has almost a bit of both.

“I’m not sure if he will get the numbers De Bruyne got. But, talking about a slow start… one of the games was City away and Gary Neville said he looked like a boy out there – now he has City at Anfield (this weekend).

“He is confident. He has gone from a little boy, and it’s a great opportunity to shove those words down Neville’s throat.”

Ekitike better than Torres – Carragher

Carragher also touched on another of Liverpool’s big-money buys in the summer when declaring Hugo Ekitike is better than Fernando Torres ever was.

Explaining why, Carragher stated: “It’s exciting because you are looking to the future of what the team can be like, Eventually it has to move on from [Mohamed] Salah and [Virgil] van Dijk.

“For the manager… last week we spoke about hope – it gives you hope seeing the new signings playing as they are.

“I think both like to play in the left channel, but when you think why you buy players like Wirtz… deep blocks – you need a player with magic feet.

“I think Ekitike is a better player than Torres. He may not get as many goals, but Torres was made by [Steven] Gerrard at Liverpool.

“Ekitike wont rely on Wirtz as much, but, if the combination keeps going, he could get the goals Torres got.”

In other news, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham were informed on deadline day that long‑term target Dayot Upamecano has agreed fresh terms and will remain at Bayern Munich, TEAMtalk can confirm, and now the Reds have a contingency plan in place.

Elsewhere, Liverpool will hold talks with Aston Villa about changing the conditions of Harvey Elliott’s loan deal, and the expectation is either of two possible outcomes will benefit every single party involved.