According to Goal, Michael Owen stated that Liverpool's high-profile signings will always be compared to Mohamed Salah's statistics, and transfer fees exceeding £100 million bring enormous pressure.

Wirtz struggled in Liverpool's match against Manchester City, while City's midfielder Cherki shone brightly. Barcola has yet to contribute a goal or assist for Liverpool.

Liverpool signed German midfielder Wirtz for £116 million in the summer of 2025, when the club was defending Premier League champions. In that transfer window, Liverpool also spent heavily on Isak, Ekitiké, and Frimpong.

Liverpool had a poor overall performance last season, with Isak, who joined for an English transfer record, scoring only 4 goals. Wirtz's performance has been similarly disappointing; he has struggled to orchestrate attacks effectively from an attacking midfield position and has failed to rediscover the form he showed at Bayer Leverkusen.

In the big match against Manchester City, Wirtz failed to impress, while Cherki stole the show, scoring a clever third goal for Manchester City and helping the away side convincingly defeat Liverpool, who played with ten men on Merseyside.

French international Cherki cost Manchester City only £34 million, yet his performance in the North West far surpassed Wirtz's. Serious questions have been raised about whether Liverpool made the right decision with their massive spending spree.

Barcola, who joined from Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain for £123 million, is also at risk of following the same path. The 24-year-old has yet to score or assist in five appearances across all competitions.

When asked about Liverpool's expensive signings' struggles, former Liverpool striker Owen, speaking as an ambassador for Casino.org, told Goal: "In terms of the money Liverpool has spent on various different players, it's really become an issue."

"Clearly, in that transfer window, they spent a lot of money on Isak, Ekitiké, and Wirtz, and currently, that money doesn't appear to have been spent well. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats, but often it's either all success or all failure."

"I don't think they are bad players. In fact, I think they are all phenomenal players. When they were recruited, I was full of hope, anticipation, and excitement. But clearly, as things have developed, the team hasn't played well."

"Then you look at expensive signings and think, 'Wait a minute, the team played very well last year, then spent all this money, what's gone wrong?' Your eyes always fall on the big-name purchases. I understand that's how it is."

"I know Barcola has only played five matches, but even with these purchases, you think the problem is that you need to produce Salah-like statistics to justify that transfer fee."

"If you're a club, you think, 'Okay, for this amount of money, we need statistics like that to justify it.' But clearly, no one can achieve Salah's statistics. So that's really the issue."

"I refuse to believe he (Wirtz) isn't good enough. We've seen his performances in different leagues, and we've seen him for the national team. But without question, his performances for Liverpool have fallen short of expectations, and it's been going on for more than a season."

"This is a problem. Liverpool needs to find a way to get the best out of him, because his ability is beyond question. But whether that can be unlocked is the big question, since it's been over a year now."

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