Liverpool’s Salah Succession Plan: Ibrahim Mbaye Emerges

For the first time since Mohamed Salah walked out of Anfield this summer, Liverpool’s succession plan on the right flank suddenly has a name, not just a question mark.

Ibrahim Mbaye.

Eighteen years old. Raw, electric, and, if Liverpool get their way, the long-term heir to one of the greatest forwards the club has ever seen.

Salah’s departure ripped more than 30 goals and assists a season out of Jürgen Klopp’s old blueprint and left Arne Slot staring at a gaping hole on the right. The clock has ticked towards the new campaign, under three weeks away, and Liverpool have moved in every area but the one that mattered most to anxious supporters.

No senior right‑wing signing. No obvious stopgap. Just a puzzle piece missing from a team that still wants to compete for the title.

The depth chart tells its own story. Jeremie Frimpong can operate high up the pitch, but he is a wing-back by trade and suddenly essential at right-back with Conor Bradley sidelined. Bradley Barcola has been admired, but he thrives off the left, not as a mirror-image of Salah’s devastating right-sided threat. The right wing, once Liverpool’s most predictable source of chaos, has become their most uncertain position.

Then came Tuesday night.

Reports emerged that Liverpool are moving for Mbaye, with talks expected to begin shortly. Fabrice Hawkins detailed genuine interest from the club, while Fabrizio Romano indicated that the young Senegalese forward is keen on the move. For the first time in weeks, the search for a Salah successor felt less like a theoretical debate and more like a live operation.

Mbaye is not a plug-and-play solution. At 18, he is not walking into Anfield as a finished article or a guaranteed starter on opening day. Liverpool know that. This is not about replacing Salah’s numbers tomorrow; it is about finding someone who might one day bend games to his will in a similar way.

That is what makes Mbaye so intriguing.

Those around him talk about a player with the tools to become a genuine world-beater: the acceleration, the one‑v‑one threat, the capacity to decide matches from the right. In a market where elite right‑sided forwards are scarce and eye‑wateringly expensive, Liverpool are trying to move a step ahead, to secure the next star before he explodes.

The landscape on that flank is bleak. Established right wingers of true top-tier quality are either locked down at superclubs or priced at levels that even Premier League heavyweights hesitate to touch. Liverpool, who built an era on smart recruitment rather than scattergun spending, appear to be leaning into that philosophy again.

So Mbaye becomes more than just a name on a shortlist. He represents a strategy.

Bet on the ceiling. Trust the environment. Back your coaches to turn potential into production.

Liverpool have done it before. Salah himself arrived as a talented but not yet world-class wide forward and left as a club legend. No one is claiming Mbaye will follow the same path, but the club’s willingness to target an 18-year-old in such a key role shows how highly they rate his upside.

This is not about sentiment, either. Liverpool are acutely aware that replacing an “Egyptian king” is impossible in like-for-like terms. What they can do is identify the next player capable of carrying that responsibility on the right, in his own way, on his own timeline.

Mbaye fits that brief.

If Liverpool can close the deal, they will not just be adding a prospect. They will be planting a flag on the future of their attack, accepting a short-term gamble for the chance of long-term dominance on a flank that has defined an era.

The question now is simple: will they move quickly enough to make him the face of what comes after Salah, rather than just another name that slipped away in a brutal market?