Gary Neville's Warning to Liverpool's £200m Duo

Gary Neville has warned Liverpool’s £200m front pair Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak that the grace period is over – and that “being nice” will not protect them from criticism much longer.

The former Manchester United defender, speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast, branded the duo his “biggest disappointments” in Liverpool’s limp Premier League opener at St James’ Park, even as he insisted he still believes they will eventually deliver.

Neville: ‘They’re going to have to start playing’

Isak completed the full 90 minutes on his first return to Newcastle since becoming the most expensive player in Premier League history last summer. Wirtz, Liverpool’s other nine-figure signing, lasted just over an hour before Arne Slot turned to Alexis Mac Allister.

Both had teased a brighter future in pre-season under the new manager. They looked sharp in friendlies, Wirtz especially as a shadow striker, hinting at a fluid, dangerous partnership. Then the real thing started.

And it vanished.

“The big thing for Liverpool is they’ve got this quarter-of-a-billion-pound front two, Isak and Wirtz and bloody hell, we’ve been kind to them,” Neville said.

“They’re going to have to start playing sooner or later or else, to be fair, they’re going to get quite a lot of criticism. For a start, they’re too nice, and if you’re going to be nice, you’d better be incredible at football.”

Neville’s main concern centred on Wirtz, who has struggled to impose himself consistently since arriving from Bayer Leverkusen.

“I don’t see the tenacity in Wirtz in particular,” he said. “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.

The biggest disappointment for me [Sunday] is those two.”

Faith in Isak’s ‘devastating’ best

For all the frustration, Neville stopped short of writing them off. He has seen too much quality over the last year to believe this is their ceiling.

“I’ve watched them both for 12 months, and I do actually have faith in them,” he said. “I think Isak’s an exceptional player and we’ve seen it.

“I never saw anybody give Gabriel and Saliba or Van Dijk and Konate a tougher time as Isak did when he played at Newcastle in a black and white shirt. I’ve seen him be devastating.

“Now Liverpool fans and his team-mates and coaching staff, they need to see that – because that’s £125m they’ve spent on him.”

Wirtz, though, did not escape a blunt assessment.

“And then Wirtz, he needs to sort himself out. Enough’s 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.

“They have both had a bit of a free ride. Obviously Isak was injured last season but Arne Slot loses his job, and Wirtz has played like that, so let’s be clear, this has got me to start some real focus now.

“I can see a real player there, but can’t keep watching this stuff and he’s been subbed after an hour and they need a goal, but they’re 2-1 down, so no that’s not right.”

‘He’s got to think like a second striker’

Neville’s tactical gripe with Wirtz is specific. The 23-year-old looked at his best in pre-season operating close to Isak, particularly in the 3-2 defeat to Monaco when he played as a genuine shadow striker.

At St James’ Park he drifted away from his centre-forward, and with it went his influence. Eight league goal involvements since his blockbuster move tell their own story.

“Sometimes I think he moves around too much,” Neville said. “Sometimes I don’t think he’s close enough to his striker, I don’t think he understands where the game’s going to be won and lost.

“When I played football and No 10s sometimes drifted too deep, or too wide, they would get a right rollicking off our manager.

“The game’s not going to be won out there, the game’s not going to be won back there, the game’s going to be won in the final third, in and around the box.

“Combining with your striker, getting crosses in, getting little passes, getting little side passes down the side of the centre-backs, being close enough to your forward so that you can combine with him. And I don’t see him combining with Isak.”

Neville wants Wirtz to strip his game back, to think less about pretty patterns and more about end product.

“I just feel like Wirtz has got to think about being involved in the build-up less and think about being a second striker. He’s got to think about his output and what he needs to do, and that is feed Isak with little passes down the side of centre-backs. He might only get the ball two or three times in that position in tight games where teams are lying deep.”

Liverpool paid for stars who decide tight games in those two or three moments. Neville’s message was clear: the time for patience is fading fast.