Gary Neville has said the media have been too ‘kind’ to Liverpool stars Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak after their underwhelming performances.

Liverpool broke the British transfer record twice to bring in Wirtz and Isak last summer, but both players found it difficult to meet expectations at Anfield during their first season.

Isak and Wirtz again failed to make much impact as Liverpool were held to a draw at Newcastle in their opening match of the 2026/27 campaign, and Neville believes the pair are now a major concern.

“The big thing for Liverpool is they’ve got this quarter of a billion pound front two, Isak and Wirtz. Bloody hell, we’ve been kind to them,” he told Sky Sports.

“We have been kind to those two. They are going to have to start playing soon or else they’re going to get a lot of criticism. They’re going to have to start delivering.

“For a start, they’re too nice. If you’re going to be nice, you better be incredible at football. I don’t see the tenacity, in Wirtz in particular. In Wirtz, I just see a nice player moving around the pitch, not really looking like he’s busting a gut to do anything. That can happen, you see a Mesut Ozil who is a bit more graceful and just flows through the game, and [Kai] Havertz is a bit like that at Arsenal.

“But I want to put a rocket up him [Wirtz], because there’s ability there, there’s talent there, the understanding of his position. Sometimes I think he moves too much, and he’s not close enough to his striker. Sometimes I don’t think he understands where the game is going to be won and lost. I take it back to when I was playing, number tens who drifted too deep or too wide, they’d get a right rollicking off our manager. The game’s not going to be won there. The game’s going to be won in the final third, in and around the box, combining with your striker.”

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