Jamie Carragher close-up.
Jamie Carragher has commented on Liverpool's summer. (Image: Getty Images)
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Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool must bring in three players capable of immediately slotting into the first team at Anfield next season, as he issued a challenge to Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz to raise their game.
Isak has fallen well short of the standard that commanded a £125million price tag on September 1, when Liverpool secured his signature from Newcastle, with the most expensive signing in British football history arriving below the required level of fitness, following a disrupted pre-season before a four-month absence after suffering a leg break at Tottenham on December 20.
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Wirtz made a slow start at Anfield but gradually began to demonstrate the quality that persuaded the Reds to part with £116m to Bayer Leverkusen, with all six of his goals arriving between November and January.
However, a back problem that ruled him out for three matches in late February and early March has been followed by a string of more muted displays.
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Carragher, who made 737 appearances for the club, has urged Liverpool's two headline summer signings to justify the enormous fees paid to acquire them. The former Reds vice-captain also set out his vision for what must happen when the transfer window reopens.
"[The big-spending summer] hasn't worked, it might work in the future because I don't think you can judge every signing in the first year," Carragher told the Liverpool Echo. "But I've said this before, my experience as a Liverpool player; every player who came to the club, I can't remember one who didn't really do much in his first season and then was a revelation afterwards.
"Some took a few months, you might get to Christmas, maybe second half of the season, so I think there's a lot to do for the players who has come in. Hugo Ekitike has done well, not amazing but he's done well.
Florian Wirtz of Liverpool during the Premier League match between Everton and Liverpool at Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool,
Florian Wirtz has faced criticism from Jamie Carragher. (Image: Getty Images)
"Isak hasn't got going, he obviously got the injury but he didn't look great to start with, Wirtz has got to do a lot more, an awful lot more when you think of the price that Liverpool have paid for him.
"In terms of what Liverpool need to do next season, well obviously they need to replace Salah. I think for me three players need to come straight into the team. You can't go on and buy five players into the team. Liverpool bought a lot of players last summer so they are not going to buy a load this summer.
"For me, you need to replace Mo Salah obviously. Liverpool need a right-back, they have fudged a few things there, they gave Conor Bradley his chance, he got another injury.
"Jeremie Frimpong has done all right actually. I think he has done OK. But for me, I think Frimpong should be the back-up right-winger to the one that we buy in the summer. And I think Conor Bradley can fight with a new right-back that comes in."
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