There is a version of Florian Wirtz that Liverpool supporters were sold when he arrived from Bayer Leverkusen for an initial £100m in the summer of 2025. Silky, decisive, the kind of player who makes the difficult look effortless. That version has shown up in flashes. The problem is that too many people are measuring every touch, every misplaced pass, every quiet forty-five minutes against a nine-figure number rather than the human being wearing the shirt.

That, at least, is the view of Vladimir Smicer, a man who knows what it means to carry expectation at Anfield. The former midfielder, part of the squad that won the Champions League in 2005, has drawn a pointed comparison between Wirtz's situation and Paul Pogba's troubled second spell at Manchester United following his world-record £89m move from Juventus in 2016. It's a comparison that stings a little, but it's not unfair, and Smicer isn't saying it to twist the knife.

"Some people are expecting a little too much from him, and I think some people are still seeing the fee that Liverpool paid for him rather than the player, and that's the problem. It was the same with Paul Pogba at Manchester United," Smicer told Grosvenor Sport. The Pogba parallel is instructive because it isn't simply about underperformance, it's about the way a transfer fee can distort perception so completely that a footballer stops being evaluated on what he actually does and starts being evaluated on what he theoretically cost.

Smicer was careful to make clear he hasn't given up on Wirtz, not remotely. "He has more inside him and I think he will probably show it for Liverpool because he's already been unlucky with some of his passes and other players not scoring goals. He is not underachieving if those great passes became assists," he said. That last point deserves some thought. Creative players are uniquely exposed by the finishing of those around them, a striker who spurns three chances in a match forgets about it quickly; the midfielder who threaded those three passes is left with nothing to show for them in the stats.

Wirtz is also navigating his second adjustment in as many years. Arne Slot's disappointing debut campaign ended with Liverpool limping to fifth, which brought Andoni Iraola through the door in June. Iraola's reputation for intense, high-energy pressing football is well established, and adapting to a completely new set of demands is no small ask for any player, let alone one still finding his feet in a new country and a new league.

And now there is company in the dock. Alexander Isak arrived last September for £125m, briefly becoming the club's most expensive signing, before Bradley Barcola joined from Paris Saint-Germain last month for £123m, making Liverpool the first club in history to field three players who each cost more than £100m. Smicer is already anxious about what that means for Barcola: "Now Bradley Barcola is facing the same big pressure as Florian Wirtz because the fee was so big. For that kind of money, they are going to expect him to score 20 goals and make 15 assists."

His broader point lands hard. Paris Saint-Germain assembled arguably the most expensive attacking line in football history with Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe and never once lifted the Champions League. The players who eventually got them there were Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele. Chemistry, timing, the right system, none of those things have a price tag, which is precisely what makes this Liverpool rebuild under Iraola so fascinating to watch unfold.