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Fresh from a fifth defeat in six league fixtures, Gary Neville says Liverpool is lacking physicality in what is a major problem for Arne Slot to solve in the next couple of weeks.
Goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and then Jeremy Doku saw a dominant Manchester City side win 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium. Liverpool now has a fortnight off before it hosts Sean Dyche's Nottingham Forest.
But with the Liverpool roster set at least until the next transfer window, the solution will need to come from within. For Slot, a more winnable run of fixtures is coming up, and he will hope to collect plenty of points before the turn of the year.
"I thought Florian Wirtz, in particular, it was a bad day for him," Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast. "We’ve been tiptoeing around him, haven’t we, for a few months around the fact that he’s young, he’s come to a new country.
"You’re going to have to stand up soon. He’s obviously got something. He’s a really good player, technically fantastic but he’s been mauled out there by [Matheus] Nunes and by others.
"He’s been chucked around the pitch and didn’t deliver in the quality side of things. His performance was a real worry. Physically, I’d be really worried if I was Arne Slot looking at that team.
"There were a few of them who look like they can’t run. I always think when you go on a losing streak, you start to doubt everything.
"That is wrong because there are some great players out there with great attitudes so it’s not time to throw the baby out of the bathwater.
"But Arne Slot’s going to need this next week, reflect, look at what he’s got and sets up post-international break and think about how he fixes the problems both going forward and in defense."
After facing Nottingham Forest, Liverpool then has West Ham, Sunderland, Leeds, Brighton, Spurs, Wolves, Leeds again, and Fulham. Those games should all see the Reds have a good chance of picking up three points.
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"Wirtz is a problem, let’s be clear," Neville continued. "Let’s call it as it is. It’s an issue. To be fair, I said a few weeks ago about [Milos] Kerkez that he looks like a little boy out there.
"Wirtz looked like a little boy and that can’t be the case. He’s a German international of great standing and he looks well short in respect of what you’d expect in a top physical match.
"They have got to get him up to speed and got to get that sort of tenacity into him, that little bit of something that means he will get into form. It means that will have to stick with him and persist, but they’ve got to find a way to get the best out of him."
Liverpool.com says: Wirtz is still adjusting to the Premier League and has looked better in Europe so far, but his class on the ball is obvious. It is going to take a little longer, but he will show his true talent in England at some point. He's too good not to.
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