‘Enough is enough’ – Gary Neville frustrated with Liverpool player who needs ‘a rocket up him’

Gary Neville has said he’d like to ‘put a rocket up’ one Liverpool player who massively frustrated him in the 2-2 draw against Newcastle on Sunday.

The Reds just about salvaged a point from their opening Premier League game of the season as Dominik Szoboszlai converted a 99th-minute penalty, the awarding of which the Sky Sports pundit felt was the correct decision.

Alexander Isak didn’t manage to score against his former club, having been inevitably booed every time he touched the ball, and our other £100m+ recruit from last summer (Florian Wirtz) was substituted just after the hour mark with his team trailing 2-1.

Neville left frustrated by Florian Wirtz

Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast after the match, the ex-Manchester United defender called out the ineffective performance of Liverpool’s number 7 at St James’ Park.

He said: “I don’t see the tenacity in Wirtz in particular. I just see a nice player moving around the pitch, not really ever looking like he’s busting a gut to do anything.

“Now that can happen. Sometimes players have that flow about them, but I want to put a rocket up him. I want to put a rocket up him because there’s ability there, there’s talent there, the understanding of his position.”

Neville continued: “Wirtz, he needs to sort himself out. Enough is enough now; we’ve talked about him enough. He’s young and he’s come to a different country and I’m all for willing him on.

“I can see a real player there, but I can’t keep watching this stuff. He’s been subbed after an hour and they need a goal, but they’re 2-1 down, so that’s not right.”

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A frustrating afternoon for Wirtz at St James’ Park

By his own admission, Wirtz struggled initally with the physicality of the Premier League in his first season with Liverpool, and it seems as though he’s still trying to get to grips with that aspect of his game.

There wasn’t a lack of endeavour from the 23-year-old against Newcastle – he had three shots in total and forced one save out of Lukas Hornicek – and he moved around the pitch at will to try and get involved in the play.

However, as Neville argued, we didn’t see enough of him in the final third, and the link-up with Isak which had been noticeable in pre-season wasn’t on show yesterday when the Reds really needed it.

To be substituted with half an hour remaining and Liverpool trailing wasn’t a good look for Wirtz, whose irritation on the bench was evident, and it’s not how he’d have wanted to go about silencing those who castigated him during his first season in England.

Hopefully he’ll make a telling impact in the attacking third of the pitch in our upcoming games, starting with Nottingham Forest’s visit to Anfield next Saturday. We know there’s a bloody brilliant player in there; we just need to start seeing more in terms of G/A output.