Robert Huth has never been one for sugar-coating. He played 322 Premier League games, won a title with Leicester City, and carries the blunt authority of a man who has seen careers made and broken in England. So when he looks at Florian Wirtz’s Liverpool future, he doesn’t bother dressing it up.
"I really find it hard to see how this can still turn around," Huth said on All Out Football's In The Mixer podcast, dissecting the 23-year-old’s situation at Anfield with the same no-nonsense edge he once took into tackles.
Liverpool did not buy a project. They bought a star. In 2025, they wired a base fee of 125 million euros to Bayer Leverkusen, dragging one of Europe’s most coveted playmakers to Merseyside and onto a wage slip that screams “instant difference-maker”. The expectation was clear: arrive, adapt, and light up the Premier League.
So far, it has not played out that way.
Wirtz’s first season in England was uneven. There were flashes – those deft touches between the lines, the vision that made him a Bundesliga sensation – but not enough to justify the price tag or the fanfare. The step up in pace and physicality has bitten hard, and Huth, who won 19 caps for Germany and played at the 2006 World Cup, is convinced that remains the core issue.
"Although he is obviously a good player," Huth said, he believes the Premier League might simply be too much for Wirtz physically. "He has real problems with his physicality."
That is a brutal verdict from a man who built his own career on strength and resilience. It also lands at a delicate moment for Wirtz. A new season, a new coach, and a new chance.
Andoni Iraola has arrived at Liverpool with a clear mandate: sharpen the edges, refresh the ideas, and get more out of expensive assets who have yet to fully convince. Wirtz sits near the top of that list. His second year at Anfield is supposed to be the one that turns potential into dominance, the one that justifies the fee and silences the doubts.
Wirtz, for his part, insists the story is not as bleak as Huth paints 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 in a recent interview, pushing back against the criticism. He described a daily grind at Liverpool that demands constant intensity.
"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.
In his own mind, the work is being done. The body is catching up. The adaptation is underway.
Huth is not buying it.
He zeroed in on Wirtz’s display in Liverpool’s opening Premier League game at Newcastle United, a 2-2 draw that already felt like a litmus test for several players. What he saw did not reassure him.
"His body language is also a bit poor," Huth said, unimpressed by the playmaker’s presence and influence. For him, this is not just about sprints and duels, but about posture, authority, and how a 125-million-euro signing carries himself when the game turns hostile.
The warning that followed was stark. Huth does not just doubt a late-season surge. He questions whether Wirtz will even be around long enough to attempt one.
By Christmas, Huth believes, Liverpool could already be weighing up an exit strategy if the performances do not climb sharply. "By Christmas they will probably look to move him on if he does not improve, because he has become an expensive problem for Liverpool," the former centre-back argued.
That is the kind of phrase that sticks: “expensive problem.” Not a luxury, not a slow-burn talent, but a financial headache in a league where every transfer misstep can echo for years.
Wirtz stands at a crossroads that many gifted imports have faced before him. The price tag is huge, the scrutiny relentless, the judgments unforgiving. He insists his body is stronger, his game more rounded, his mentality hardened by the daily standard at Liverpool. Huth looks at the same player and sees a talent fighting a losing battle with the demands of English football.
The next few months will decide who is right.
