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Journalism of Courage
Bayern Munich honorary president Uli Hoeness slammed Liverpool’s subpar season, saying that the English club wasn’t playing to the strengths of star signing Florian Wirtz. He also accused players like Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai not passing to the German player and are instead happy to just keep the ball.
“They have spent 500 million euros and are playing a catastrophic season… In my opinion, that’s because you only have superstars. You only have chiefs and no workers. I always say: at Liverpool, they’ll soon have to play with five balls because the stars don’t want to give up a ball. Poor Florian Wirtz, he doesn’t get the ball at all because Salah and Szoboszlai and what they’re all called want to play with their own ball.”
Wirtz hasn’t yet hit the ground running for the Reds after his record £116m move from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer. The German playmaker has yet to register a goal or assist in the Premier League for the defending champions and has been under immense scrutiny for his performances.
While Liverpool went back to winning ways this past week with a 2-0 win against West Ham, their season has been far from ideal. Before the game with the Hammers, Liverpool were in a free fall, having lost their last 3 games by more than 3 goals. They lost to Manchester City 0-3, lost to Nottingham Forest with the same margin and also went down 4-1 to PSV in the Champions League. They had lost 6 of their last 7 matches in all competitions before defeating West ham on Sunday.
Against West Ham, manager Arne Slot took drastic measures, leaving Salah out of his starting lineup for the first time in a league game. Alexander Isak, another record signing, who had looked short of form and fitness, spurned two opportunities before the break before slotting home a Cody Gakpo pull-back on the hour mark, finally opening his account for the Reds in the Premier League.
Gakpo added a second in the 92nd minute. Liverpool’s victory, only their second in eight league games, moved them up to eighth with 21 points.
