Florian Wirtz: Liverpool's Puzzle in Need of a Solution

Florian Wirtz was supposed to be the crown jewel of Liverpool’s new era. Right now, he is a puzzle they cannot afford to leave unsolved for much longer.

Signed for huge money and handed the keys to the attack, the German arrived on Merseyside with the weight of expectation and the label of “too good to fail”. As the 2026-27 season gets going, that phrase is starting to sound less like a prediction and more like a question.

Hamann’s warning shot

Dietmar Hamann has watched this story unfold before. Speaking to GOAL, the former Liverpool midfielder cut straight through the romance of potential and into the reality of performance.

“He's got to start playing well. He has to start influencing the game,” Hamann said, laying out the blunt requirement for a player signed to be a difference-maker, not a passenger.

Hamann’s criticism goes beyond simple form. He paints a picture of a talented player drifting through matches.

“I think he's a player who floats,” he explained. Wirtz, in his eyes, has yet to earn the kind of respect that allows creative players a few defensive liberties – the unspoken agreement in any top side that if you carry the artist, the artist must deliver.

Teammates will do the running, Hamann argued, if “when he does get the ball 10 times, six, seven, eight times, something's going to happen. That's just not the case.”

That is the crux. Wirtz is working, but not where Liverpool need him most.

Working hard in the wrong places

Hamann acknowledged that the 23-year-old is not hiding. If anything, he is trying too hard in the wrong direction.

“Now he's working very hard going backwards. I think sometimes he's doing too much. He wants to help the team because he sees that he can’t influence the game going forward,” Hamann said.

The balance is off. Instead of dictating play in the final third, Wirtz is chasing back, plugging gaps, burning energy that should be reserved for the moments that change games.

“He will only get the respect of the players when he starts influencing the game going forward. He's not there to win balls, he's there to set up goals and score goals.”

Last season offered only flashes. Hamann spoke of “maybe a handful of games” where Wirtz truly looked like the player Liverpool thought they were buying. For a signing of his cost and status, that is nowhere near enough.

Premier League reality check

The debate over adaptation is a familiar one. The Premier League is quicker, more physical, more relentless. Many stars have needed time. Some never adjusted.

Hamann reached back to the case of Juan Sebastian Veron, who arrived in England hailed as one of the best midfielders in the world, only to leave after a single season and return to Italy.

“Some just can't do it or don't want to do it,” Hamann said. The implication is clear: reputation guarantees nothing here.

At first, Hamann urged patience. “The first two or three months, give him time. I said he's too good to fail.” But his tone shifted as the season dragged on.

“Once it went past Christmas, I said, I don't think he's going to crack it anymore because it's too long now. Because expectations are not getting any less.”

Time, once an ally, has turned into pressure.

A ticking clock to the break – and beyond

This season has not started in a way that calms nerves. Wirtz was substituted after an hour in the opening game, another reminder that he remains on the fringes of his own story.

Hamann believes the next few weeks could be decisive.

“If he doesn't start influencing games in the next three or four weeks, I think by the time we have that international break, which is longer this year, I think we have a lot of paper talk, a lot of discussions, whether the club should have bought him… And maybe him thinking, ‘well, maybe this is not for me’.”

That break looms large. It offers a natural pause in the season and, with it, a platform for scrutiny. For a player “of that magnitude, of that stature, the amount of money he costs,” Hamann is convinced “it's simply not enough. You've got to find a solution somehow, maybe even in winter, if things don't get better.”

Liverpool did not sign Wirtz to become a problem to solve in January. Yet that is the direction this narrative is drifting towards.

Where does he actually fit?

Complicating matters is the tactical question that has followed Wirtz since his arrival. Is he a classic No.10, pulling strings between the lines? Or a wide forward cutting in from the left, attacking space and goal?

The debate has never really settled. Hamann, though, is unconvinced that positioning is the main issue.

“He was bought to be the main man. And I wouldn't blame it on the position that he plays on the left,” he said.

He recalled that a year earlier, the plan was to use Wirtz centrally. “I said in the summer he sees him as a number 10. But if you've got a number 10 who doesn't create the chances or doesn't score enough goals, then obviously somebody else has to play – especially with [Bradley] Barcola coming in.”

Barcola’s arrival only sharpens the edges. Liverpool now have another attacking option pushing for minutes in those same areas of the pitch. The message is unmistakable: reputation alone will not protect Wirtz from competition.

Hamann also suggested that the club may have missed a moment of hard clarity last season.

He felt that “after Christmas, somebody should have said, ‘listen lad, either you do it or in the summer, we see what's happening in the World Cup, maybe we've got to find a solution’. Because they can't wait forever.”

They still can’t.

A star at a crossroads

Two seasons. That is roughly the window many at elite clubs now give a major signing to prove he belongs at the very top. Wirtz is rapidly approaching that threshold.

Liverpool wanted a talisman. What they have, so far, is a talented player searching for his place, his rhythm, his authority in a league that does not indulge slow-burning projects for long.

The next few weeks will not just shape the headlines around Florian Wirtz. They may decide whether his Liverpool story becomes a slow-burn redemption arc – or a cautionary tale about a superstar who never quite lit up Anfield.