Florian Wirtz's Struggles at Liverpool: Robert Huth's Concerns
Robert Huth has seen careers unravel in the Premier League. He has also seen unlikely ones explode into legend. So when the former Leicester City defender looks at Florian Wirtz’s situation at Liverpool, he doesn’t like what he sees.
"I really find it hard to see how this can still turn around," Huth said on All Out Football's podcast In The Mixer, casting a harsh light on a transfer that was supposed to reshape Liverpool’s attack.
This is not an outside voice sniping from a distance. Huth lived this league. Three hundred and twenty-two Premier League appearances, a title with Leicester in 2016, 19 caps for Germany, a World Cup on home soil in 2006. He knows how unforgiving English football can be.
And in his eyes, the jump may be too big for Wirtz.
A €125m gamble under pressure
Liverpool did not tiptoe into this deal. They smashed through the door. A base fee of 125 million euros to prise Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen in 2025, a statement signing to anchor the club’s next attacking cycle.
The first season at Anfield did not match the billing. There were flashes – the weight of pass, the glide between the lines, the vision that made him a star in the Bundesliga – but not the sustained dominance that comes with a nine-figure fee. The expectations stayed sky-high; the performances did not.
Now comes season two, under new coach Andoni Iraola, with the club banking on a definitive breakthrough. Different manager, different ideas, same pressure.
Huth is unconvinced that the physical side of English football will allow that breakthrough to happen.
"Although the 23-year-old was obviously a good player," he warned, the Premier League could be a step too far for Wirtz’s body. "He has real problems with his physicality," Huth said, blunt as ever.
For a player expected to be the creative heartbeat of a pressing, high-intensity Liverpool, that is a brutal assessment.
Wirtz hits back
Wirtz, though, is not having it.
"I would say that I have developed in almost every area. Definitely when it comes to my physical level," he told RTL and Sky recently, pushing back against Huth and others who have questioned whether he can cope with the league’s demands.
There was no defensiveness in his explanation, just a clear picture of daily life at Liverpool.
"Even in training, I have to push myself almost to my limits every day, simply because there are players here who are also fully committed in training every day and have that kind of quality. You also have to be at a good level yourself," the Germany international explained.
From Wirtz’s perspective, the adaptation is underway. The body is catching up. The environment is forcing him to grow. He sees progression where Huth sees warning signs.
Opening-day doubts
Then came the Premier League opener at Newcastle United. A 2-2 draw, a frantic game, and another 90 minutes poured into the microscope.
Huth did not like what he saw there either.
"His body language is also a bit poor," he said of Wirtz’s display at St James’ Park, reading more into the way the playmaker carried himself than into any single touch or pass.
For Huth, this is not just about sprints and duels. It is about presence. About a player who cost 125 million euros looking like he owns the stage, not just visiting it.
He does not believe that transformation is coming quickly. In fact, he fears the opposite.
By Christmas, Huth suggested, Liverpool "will probably look to move him on if he does not improve, because he has become an expensive problem for Liverpool."
It is a stark prediction. An early exit for a marquee signing, less than two seasons after arriving, would be a brutal admission of failure from all sides.
Right now, Wirtz insists he is building the tools to survive this league. Huth is adamant the warning lights are already flashing. The fee is fixed, the scrutiny is growing, and the clock, as always at a club like Liverpool, is already ticking.
