Gary Neville says Liverpool have a player who is ‘too quick’ and needs to slow down

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Liverpool have had an interesting start to this Premier League season.

The Reds have come into this campaign as reigning champions, and they have won three out of their first three games.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	3	3	0	0	8	4	4	9

However, these three victories haven’t quite been all that straightforward.

Indeed, Liverpool have won these three matches courtesy of late goals, and the performances at times have flattered to deceive.

Mohamed Salah has been criticised already this season, while Ibrahima Konate has been singled out as well.

Florian Wirtz has also had a slow start to life on Merseyside, and speaking on his podcast, Gary Neville has been speaking about what the German needs to do to click into gear.

Florian Wirtz needs to slow down

Neville spoke about Wirtz and what he needs to do in order to be a success.

The pundit says Wirtz’s problem is quite simple, he’s trying to do too much too quickly.

Neville says Wirtz needs to learn the art of slowing down and even standing still at times in order to lure defenders into a false sense of security.

“The boy, Wirtz, we will talk about him maybe,” Neville said.

“He looks like he’s just finding his feet still and, you know, how he can do that, you know, we’ll find out. He’s played in two difficult games against Arsenal and Newcastle.”

“And I’m thinking, sometimes you hear expressions, don’t you, by coaches, and sometimes you say, he’s always on the move. And I’m watching Wirtz, he’s always on the move. And I’m thinking, stand still for a second.

“I’m thinking, stand still. I’m watching him there sort of like drift between the lines.

“I’m thinking, he’s probably moving a bit too quick. Because I always think sometimes when you’re playing in the pocket and in the hole, and I used to see it from a different side. I used to see it from being a defender, and there might be a player that you can see just drifting in the pocket.

“And I used to think that when they were moving, it caught the eye of the defenders. It caught the eye of the midfield players, and they were easier to mark. I always thought when they just walked and drifted sometimes and they looked disinterested, and then all of a sudden they made a quick movement, that was when you got done in the pocket.”

“So there’s two things, one, I think he’s jogging across the line, and he can’t then really fool or kid people when he gets on the ball, so that’s just a little bit of smartness and intelligence. And then the other thing is, I think just the element of being higher up the pitch by five or six, seven yards, and not going too deep, that means that the midfield players for the opposition can pick you up easily and just shield in front. I almost feel like the centre backs want to come in to get you, rather than actually be the central midfield players are marking you.”

“For me, I just think he may be a little bit predictable this moment in time, maybe a little bit deep, but it’s very early in his Liverpool career. I think there will be Liverpool fans, there will be 50, 60,000 in here today, and there will be Liverpool coaches thinking, okay, he needs a bit of coaching.

“He’s not the finished article at 115 million. He’s a young lad, he needs work, he needs coaching, he needs something and he’s got the right man there in Arne Slot”

Florian Wirtz’s stats vs Arsenal

Gary Neville noted that Wirtz hasn’t got going yet at Liverpool, and that was evident against Arsenal on Sunday.

Indeed, the German was rather poor against Arsenal over the weekend, and the stats showed that he wasn’t particularly effective against the Gunners on Sunday.

Of course, it’s early days for Wirtz at Anfield, but the reality is he does need to step up if he’s going to justify his huge pricetag.

Who knows? Perhaps Wirtz will step up once he starts playing alongside Alexander Isak.