West Ham 0-2 Liverpool
The Bayern Munich chief discussed Florian Wirtz’s start to his Liverpool career and suggested that Dominik Szoboszlai is one player to blame.
It appears that Bayern Munich’s honorary president just can’t let it go.
In fairness to Uli Hoeness, he did not voluntarily bring up the failure to sign Florian Wirtz. He was speaking at a large event in Germany where he was asked several questions, with the answers relayed by Bild.
The subject of Wirtz was raised. Of course, it seemed a foregone conclusion that arguably Germany’s greatest talent was bound for the Allianz Arena in the summer transfer window before Liverpool intervened. A persuasive pitch by the Reds and head coach Arne Slot meant he joined the Premier League champions.
However, Hoeness was hardly magnanimous in his answer to missing out on Wirtz. He could not resist chiding Liverpool’s poor campaign so far, with the defence of the English championship ending prematurely. Wirtz has had somewhat of a soft launch to his Anfield career as he acclimatises to the Premier League and a new country.
“They spent €500m 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: At Liverpool, they’ll soon have to play with five balls because the stars won’t give up any of them.”
Hoeness then suggested that there are two players at fault for Wirtz’s early struggles. “Poor Florian Wirtz, he doesn’t even get a ball there because Salah and Szoboszlai and all the others want to play with their own,” he said.
The claim that Mo Salah has had an impact might be somewhat understandable. Salah has been Liverpool’s talisman in his previous eight seasons. So much of the Reds’ play has been through him it’s why he is third on the club’s all-time top scorer list. Like many forwards, Salah can be selfish in the final third. And there is no denying that the Egypt international’s form this campaign has tanked, having plundered 34 goals in all competitions during the 2024-25 campaign.
But to suggest Szoboszlai puts himself first is complete hogwash. Hoeness couldn’t have picked a worse name. Szoboszlai has without a doubt been Liverpool’s best performer this term. Yet that has not come at the expense of him being looking at No.1. The Hungary international has played in numerous positions without hesitation this campaign. He has answered Slot’s SOS call when deployed at right-back, delivering a fine display in a 1-0 triumph over Arsenal that was won with his free-kick. In Sunday’s 2-0 victory at West Ham United, Szoboszlai was stationed on the right-hand side of midfield.
And out of possession, there might not be a player who works harder. The former RB Leipzig man has an incredible engine and presses the opposition relentlessly. A reason why Salah was so prolific was campaign was because Szoboszlai was willing to cover for his team-mate if Liverpool lost the ball in transition.
Speaking on Szoboszlai last season, Slot said: “He doesn’t always get the credits for the fact he is very important for this team, because his work-rate is un-be-lievable. He just keeps on running with the highest intensity, and that is so important for a team that wants to compete for something.”
Given the comments to single out Szoboszlai, it makes you think it Hoeness has watched any Liverpool game at all this season.
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