Uli Hoeneß Critiques Liverpool’s Star-Heavy Strategy Following Wirtz’s Transfer

During a recent conference in Munich, Bayern Munich’s Uli Hoeneß shared his thoughts on Liverpool and the early experiences of Florian Wirtz at the club.

Bayern had shown considerable interest in Wirtz over the summer; however, the young talent from Bayer Leverkusen ultimately chose to join Liverpool, the reigning champions of the Premier League.

The Köln native was part of a significant investment by the Reds, who spent a total of €482 million in the transfer window, including €125 million on Wirtz and €145 million on Aleksander Isak.

Nevertheless, Liverpool has encountered a challenging start to the season, suffering nine losses in their last 13 matches. Hoeneß remarked, “They spent €500 million and are having a disastrous season. In my opinion, that’s because they only have superstars. They only have ‘chiefs’ and no ‘workers’. I always say that Liverpool will soon have to play with five balls because the stars won’t let go of the ball. Poor Florian Wirtz, he doesn’t even get a ball because Salah and Szoboszlai and all the others want to play with their own.”

It is well-documented that Hoeneß had hoped for Wirtz to join Bayern Munich, even describing it as a ‘dream’ to see the 22-year-old at the Allianz Arena.

Regarding Wirtz’s decision to leave for Liverpool, Hoeneß commented, “Apparently, Slot promised him something that he’s now clearly not keeping. He promised him he’d get the number 10 shirt and that he’d build a new team around him. That was rubbish. He got the number 7 shirt, and the new team is clearly not playing around Florian Wirtz. I feel terribly sorry for him. Everything went through him in Leverkusen. In Liverpool, he gets five passes in a half – and if he loses the ball twice, he gets a bad rating.”

The timing of Hoeneß’s remarks was particularly unfortunate, as they came just after Wirtz had delivered one of his best performances for Liverpool in a 2-0 victory against West Ham, where he contributed with a significant pre-assist for the opening goal.