Alexander Isak scored his first Premier League goal for Liverpool on the hour as the Reds picked apart West Ham United on Sunday afternoon. Fellow signing Florian Wirtz also lit up the London Stadium as he dictated play and had what could be his best performance so far for the club.
Liverpool’s £400M+ summer spending has been widely criticized by a plethora of pundits after the Premier League champions fell to what was one of the worst starts to a campaign in the club’s history.
Speaking this week, Hoeness has criticized Liverpool splashing the cash and suggested that the side do not have a team but rather a group of stars.
“They have spent 500M euros and are playing a catastrophic season… In my opinion, that’s because you only have superstars. You only have chiefs and no workers.”
“I always say: at Liverpool, they’ll soon have to play with five balls because the stars don’t want to give up a ball.”
“Poor Florian Wirtz, he doesn’t get the ball at all because Salah and Szoboszlai and what they’re all called want to play with their own ball.”
Mohamed Salah was dropped for a Premier League game for the first time since April 2024 at West Ham, and Liverpool seemed to benefit from his absence. Hoeness’ comments on superstars may become more relevant as manager Arne Slot readjusts his team and leaves out bigger players such as Salah who have underperformed.
Liverpool face Sunderland and Leeds United before taking on Inter Milan in the Champions League in what are must win games for Slot, who is under immense pressure.