Robert Huth Questions Florian Wirtz's Future at Liverpool

Robert Huth doubts Florian Wirtz will ever truly belong at Liverpool. And he is not dressing it up.

"I really find it hard to see how this can still turn around," said the former Premier League defender on All Out Football's podcast In The Mixer, dissecting Wirtz's situation at Anfield with the bluntness that marked his playing days.

Huth, a veteran of 322 Premier League appearances and a title winner with Leicester City in 2016, accepts that the 23-year-old is "obviously a good player". That is where the praise stops. For him, the step from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool looks too steep in one crucial area.

"He has real problems with his physicality," said the 42-year-old, who won 19 caps for Germany and featured at the 2006 World Cup on home soil. In a league that punishes hesitation and shrugs off finesse without force, Huth sees a mismatch.

Liverpool paid a hefty base fee of 125 million euros to bring Wirtz from Leverkusen in 2025, a statement signing meant to anchor the club’s next attacking era. Instead, his first season on Merseyside flickered rather than burned. There were flashes, glimpses of the playmaker who lit up the Bundesliga, but nowhere near the sustained impact that fee demands.

Now a new chapter has begun under coach Andoni Iraola. Inside the club, this second season is supposed to be the one that changes everything for Wirtz, the campaign that turns promise into a definitive Premier League breakthrough.

Wirtz, for his part, insists that change is already underway.

"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’s assessment and similar criticism. The daily grind at Liverpool, he argued, is forcing him up a level.

"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.

The numbers, the fee, the scrutiny – they all hang over him. And Huth is not convinced the trajectory is upward.

The former centre-back pointed to Wirtz’s display in Liverpool’s opening Premier League game of the new season, a 2-2 draw at Newcastle United, as a worrying sign rather than a platform. It was not just about duels lost or passes misplaced for him.

"His body language is also a bit poor," Huth said, unimpressed by what he saw in the attacking midfielder’s demeanour. For a player trying to win over a demanding fanbase and a ruthless league, he believes that sends the wrong message.

Huth does not expect a sudden turnaround. In fact, he floated a scenario that would have seemed unthinkable when Liverpool wired 125 million euros to Leverkusen.

"By Christmas they will probably look to move him on if he does not improve, because he has become an expensive problem for Liverpool," he claimed.

Between those two poles – a World Cup defender warning of an early exit and a young playmaker adamant he is growing into the fight – lies the real story of Wirtz at Anfield. The clock is ticking, the price tag is not going away, and the Premier League rarely waits for anyone.