Liverpool's Tactical Challenge: Finding a Replacement for Salah

Bradley Barcola was the statement signing of Liverpool’s summer. A Champions League winner with France on his CV, prised from Paris Saint-Germain for £123 million, the kind of fee that screams “superstar” before he has even pulled on the shirt at Anfield.

There’s one problem. He, like so many of Andoni Iraola’s wide options, prefers the left.

Barcola, Cody Gakpo, Rio Ngumoha and Victor Munoz all gravitate to that flank. It’s their natural habitat, the side they instinctively drift toward. And yet someone has to step into the space Mohamed Salah left behind – 257 goals worth of space, to be precise – on the right.

So Iraola has been forced into a tactical jigsaw. Not panic. Not chaos. Just calculated improvisation.

The Targets That Got Away

Liverpool knew the issue was coming. The recruitment team didn’t sleepwalk into a season without a natural right-sided heir to Salah.

They went after one. Two, in fact.

Yankuba Minteh at Brighton and Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr were both identified as potential successors, both more at home off the right. Bids went in. Talks were held. No deals.

At that point, many clubs would have moved down the list, into the territory of options C, D or E. Liverpool stopped.

They decided not to throw money at the problem just to say it was “solved”. No late scramble for a square peg. No overpaying a domestic rival simply because the depth chart looked uneven.

The call was made: ride it out, trust what’s already in the building, and revisit the situation in January.

For now, that restraint is the plan.

Murphy: Liverpool Right Not to Buy “Just to Fill”

Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy sees a clear logic behind that stance.

Speaking to GOAL courtesy of Snabbare, he pointed straight at the failed moves for Minteh and Sarr as proof the club are fully aware of the imbalance in wide areas, and then backed their refusal to compromise.

“I think there were a lot of rumours around trying to get Minteh and Sarr in, who are obviously more right-sided players, so they're obviously aware of it,” Murphy said.

“But I think, as a football club, there's something to be said for not buying somebody or getting somebody just to fill. If you've already got talented, intelligent footballers there, who can play that side – because I've seen Barcola play off the right, I think Gakpo's got the intelligence to do it, I think he'll score goals from there. He got a great assist from there, actually, I think in the Forest game from the right side.”

The message from Murphy is blunt: if Plan A and Plan B don’t land, you don’t throw money at Plan F.

“So they probably looked at what they already had when they couldn't get Sarr or Minteh and thought, ‘you know what, let's not rush and get someone in who doesn't quite fit the criteria’. So I understand it.

“You don't always get what you want in a window. You can't be held to ransom and pay over the odds for players just because you desperately need them, because they've spent a lot of money.

“So in an ideal world you'd want a more orthodox right-sided player, I agree with that, but ultimately do I think they've got enough for now in Munoz, who's shown glimpses on that side, and Gakpo can play that side and even Barcola? I think they've got enough.”

It’s not that Liverpool don’t want a right winger. They just refuse to let the market dictate their desperation.

Left-Footed, Right-Sided… and Still Unbeaten

The experiment has already started.

Gakpo, Ngumoha, Munoz and Barcola have all spent time on the right in the opening stretch of the 2026-27 season. The rotations haven’t been cosmetic. They’ve been decisive.

At Bournemouth, the right flank delivered the winning moment. Gakpo burst down the touchline, drove into space, and whipped in a low cross that unsettled the defence and found Alexander Isak for the decisive goal. It was exactly the kind of action Liverpool fans once associated almost exclusively with Salah.

Those sequences matter. They show this isn’t simply a case of players “making do” on the wrong side. They’re influencing games from there.

And the bigger picture? Liverpool remain unbeaten in the Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup. The absence of a ready-made “new Salah” has not yet turned into a crisis. It hasn’t even become a priority that screams for an immediate fix.

January Questions and a Wider Horizon

This doesn’t mean the chapter is closed on Minteh, Sarr or any other right-sided option.

Liverpool could easily circle back in early 2027 or next summer. Both Minteh and Sarr are understood to be open to an Anfield move, and the club’s interest hasn’t evaporated, only paused.

For now, Iraola is living with a lopsided squad on paper, but not in performance. The right wing belongs to a committee rather than a king. Gakpo’s intelligence, Barcola’s versatility, Munoz’s flashes, Ngumoha’s promise – they’re sharing the load that once rested on a single left foot.

At some point, Liverpool will have to decide: do they anoint a true specialist for that role, or lean fully into this fluid, interchangeable front line?

The unbeaten record buys them time. How they spend it could define the next era after Salah.