25 Mar 2022 11:10:43
It looks very likely salah will leave this summer as bids should prove attractive to our owners and mo might just jump, but who is replacing him?
Never misses games
Ultra professional
Assists
Goals
World class
Popular with teammates.
I hope we know what we are doing because its hard to replicate what salah brings.

25 Mar 2022 11:56:22
At the moment our team is pretty much built around Salah. He has the least defensive responsibility and we always work it to him hence why he's had about 120 shots this season. About 5 per 90 in fact.

If Salah goes we should replace him in my opinion with Bowen and a front 3 of Diaz, Jota/ Mane and Bowen is a lot more equal in terms of quality so rather than everything being set up around Bowen you'd probably see a more varied attacking approach. Bowen suits our style of play and he has goals and assists in his locker.

Highly likely we still score less goals because Salah is the best player in the world right now but we'd still have enough quality to score against anyone and we'd have to think about how we can improve elsewhere.

What becomes more important for me is controlling the midfield. At the moment Salah can bail us out in games where the midfield is struggling. Fabinho and Thiago are quality but Hendo is clearly in decline and nobody else is at that level yet. So when Thiago can't play (which was always going to be about a third of the season) Fabinho is carrying us. It's so vital we improve the midfield if Salah goes. I'd like Rice or Ward-Prowse because i think we need a leader with the right mentality. Bissouma and Sanches come with baggage.

25 Mar 2022 12:09:32
You cant, him and mbappe are ahead of every1 else in them wide positions. Personally i haven't given up hope of him staying but if he does go it'll just be a case of like when Coutinho left. losing in one position but strenghtening in others. Maybe if were left slightly weaker on the right but strenghten the midfield the team can function just as well.

25 Mar 2022 12:21:51
Every single day there's a post about the possibility of Salah leaving and whos going to replace him. Its getting monotonous.

25 Mar 2022 12:49:40
IDreamOfGin - I don't want guitar lessons.

25 Mar 2022 12:53:08
At the end of the day the club has an asset worth tens of millions of pounds that, in fifteen months time, without a contract renewal, achieves a value of zero.

The club will do what any other business would do in these circumstances and take action to get the maximum return.

25 Mar 2022 13:02:41
I thought it was decided on here the other week that Salah is over the hill and we’ll be fine without him.

25 Mar 2022 13:03:58
Better players, and better value, than Bowen out there imo.

25 Mar 2022 13:08:43
The Salah situated is quite clear. If he wants to stay and if the club really want him to stay a deal will be struck. If either party wants out a deal won't be struck and he will almost certainly leave at the end of his contract. The club won't be able to sell him at the end of this season if he doesn't want to go.

25 Mar 2022 14:09:48
For me, although probably Barcelona bound it would be rapping, but the midfield is where we need for focus our attention on, salah does a lot of cover in that midfield, lose him yoire losing a player who plays 2 positions, as well as scoring a stupid amount of goals, sort the midfield out and you can replace salah with a quality addition, never going to be better straight away.

25 Mar 2022 14:18:59
Raphina*.

25 Mar 2022 14:37:26
If Salah leaves, that’s a minimum 30 goals we need to find from somewhere every season in goals and assists as he is that consistent and brilliant, and whatever fee we get for him won’t be enough afford an adequate replacement or enable a squad upgrade like we did with Coutinho’s fee (who we could afford to let go as he really wasn’t that important in the scheme of things) as we probably aren’t going to see much more than £50-60m as he’s knocking 30 with a year left on his contract, this is entirely different from the Coutinho situation because of how important Salah is to how we function and how desperate Barcelona were to spend money stupidly. I don’t see who we can afford to replace what he brings to the side?

As for midfield reinforcements, we definitely need to do something this summer, but we shouldn’t look at either Sanches or Ward Prowse if it’s all the same, Sanches is an over rated sick note with zero tactical acumen and Ward Prowse can only hit a dead ball but not much else. We can’t afford Rice (West Ham don’t need to sell) and Bissouma (although very good) is allegedly currently having his collar felt by the bizzies.

Add to that the fact that Mane (& Firmino too, I think? ) will also be entering their last 12 months of their contracts from this summer and it’s far from an ideal situation.

25 Mar 2022 14:56:50
Why not build the team around Diaz like we have around Salah. I’ve no idea how much Bowen is but he won’t be cheap. The idea of buying him would all depend on the price!

25 Mar 2022 15:01:56
What any decent business would do is pay the man accordingly because others will, we're one of the biggest clubs in the world and are sending a message that we can't afford to keep works class players. The man is never injured, guarantees yo 30 goals a season and numerous assists, not to mention the money he brings in in merchandise sales etc. And anyone who thinks Bowen is going to replace that give your heads a good wobble.

25 Mar 2022 15:49:45
To suggest our team is built around Salah would mean we are almost a one man team. Salah is world class and arguably the best player in the world this season. But our attacks come from both sides and through the middle hence why Trent and Robbo are 1 and 2 for assists and Jota and Mane are 2 and 3 for goals scored.

Last time our team was built around 1 player was Suarez. Now we have world class and top class players in every position in the starting 11.

And if I am wrong and we are built around Salah then we are in more trouble than I first thought if he does move on in the summer.

25 Mar 2022 16:47:11
Agree with Port 100%! and a good point on the merchandise, Salah is one of the biggest and well known faces in world football. Fans are forgetting the money he helps bring into the club.

25 Mar 2022 18:20:48
And when you look at the Nike deal where we now get 20% of sales and a smaller amount up front then that fact is even more relevant here. I know loads of friends who support utd and their kids all now want Liverpool jerseys purely because of salah. A deal has to be done or fsg are seriously lacking ambition and God help us when klopp leaves.

25 Mar 2022 18:59:58
I agree MK. Rice would be a great transition from Hendo. But one must think, is the rice price right? 🦵💪.

25 Mar 2022 19:24:23
Didn’t want to post but I simply couldn’t control myself on this one. James Ward Whatever to control our midfield 😆😆😆😆😆😆. MK and his obsession on British players are no surprise.
Although I absolutely love Rice he will cost a mountain and how can we afford him when we couldn’t keep Salah 😆😆😆😆😆.

You know, the onus is on us or precisely Mr. Edwards. Overstocked the left with Options in Mane / Diaz and Jota and completely neglected the right as we thought Salah would bend and sign an extension. 😂😂😂😂.

Jarrod Bowen scoring 30 goals 😂😂😂.

In regards to a replacement, Nobody is replacing Salah and his numbers. Dembele when fit is the closest right winger we have in Europe. Every other is a gamble including him and that’s on us not planning it in well advance.

Cheers.

25 Mar 2022 19:29:06
Oh man. ! Give it a break for a while. Talk about something else.

25 Mar 2022 19:36:53
I still wonder what possesses people to take time to log onto a fans opinion forum and moan that people are posting opinions.

25 Mar 2022 19:58:31
Salah will be going sooner or later. And we won't be spending hundreds of millions on the latest English flavour of the month to replace him. We didn't break the bank to sign Salah himself, Firmino, Mane, Jota or Diaz. There's a definite trend there that gets overlooked because fans want to see big numbers spent.
That's not the FSG way, and it depends on the individual's perspective as to whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

25 Mar 2022 20:05:46
People deal in absolutes too much. Salah's replacement doesn't need to score 30 goals a season a season. The whole team has to pick up the slack. 5 of Salah's 20 were penalties so there is 5 more Fabinho would need to pick up. Then the other 20 or so a season would need to be covered by his replacement and Mane/ Jota/ Diaz giving us more. Bowen in my opinion won't give you 40-50 goals/ assists a season like Mo. But he is well capable of 20 goals and 10 assists. Might even hit that this season in West Hams team. Everyone has to step up. When City lost Aguero they didn't sign a 25 goal striker and yet they're still favourites for the PL and CL and scoring 5, 6 or 7 goals in some games.

Also never said we were a one man team but it's pure blind ignorance to not acknowledge that Salah is the player left highest up the pitch in most open play situations, and the only one waiting outside our box to break on defending corners. He is given every penalty. And although we do attack down the left and central, far more of the attacks end with Salah. He's had more shots than any other player in the league so this isn't opinion, it is fact. We're not a one man team just because Salah is our main attacking outlet and it's common sense we'd set up to have the best attacker in the world as close to the goal as possible. Christ, this isn't hard to grasp or new knowledge.

As for Ward-Prowse only being good at dead balls, i mean tell me you only watch match of the day without telling me. His work rate box to box is exceptional. He was the best player on the pitch by a mile when Saints drew 1-1 with Man City and he gives you that same application every week for 90 minutes without ever needing a rest. It's not about him being English. He's a good leader and a good player who will play 38 league games a season every season. You need good characters/ professionals. I'd prefer Rice anyway for the record but Ward-Prowse is a very good player with or without his set pieces. I don't care about nationality and it's pure coincidence the 3 options i listed were English.

25 Mar 2022 20:41:54
So when Salah is left highest up the pitch is our defensive pattern still based around Salah then?

Love it when people spout the nonsense it’s not opinion it’s fact. Some actually believe they are better fans than the rest.

26 Mar 2022 00:34:23
JK23, look at the average position taken up by players and you'll see that it does affect defensive shape actually. Salah is always the furthest forward but you often see the midfield is slightly offset to the right side. That is not my opinion if there is tangible evidence. I'm not saying i'm a better fan than you at all, just as i didn't say we're a one man team. You seem more interested in paraphrasing and mis-quoting me than you do in constructing a counter argument that the way we set up results in more chances for Salah than other players. This is the same in nearly every team. All teams set up to benefit their best players. Kane has most shots for Tottenham, Ronaldo for United, Raphinha for Leeds, Saka for Arsenal etc.

It's about what is best for the team so any good manager puts their best goalscorer in as many shooting situations as possible. Why would we leave Mane on the last man and ask Salah to defend the front post on corners? It's not a slight against Salah to point out that we give him more freedom and more of the ball than we give to the other forwards. Salah has had 115 shots and Mane has had 81. Jota just 65. I'm not making this up as I go along. Salah plays closer to the goal and he's normally left on the pitch for longer and thus he has more shots than others. That's just good management from Klopp to build around Salah because he does so much good with the ball. Those 115 attacks which ended with Salah shooting wouldn't all just cease to happen. Some might as Salah often works his own space to shoot very well. But most would just end with someone else shooting and not necessarily the player in Salah's place either. So it's down to the whole team to cover the loss of Salah's goals, not just his replacement.

I honestly don't understand how anyone can dispute this if they watch Liverpool. It wasn't even a controversial statement. " : football team sets up around their star player. Stay tuned for Life Guard gets wet"

26 Mar 2022 06:00:35
You did convince the same posters on how Lallana and Dany ings would easily replace Suarez’s goals and assists. So I ain’t biting your theory this time.
It doesn’t happen overnight.
Salah also brings many aspect to his game than just goals. He draws atleast 3 defenders to him and always keep the opposition in their toes.
Plus klopp has only two years left on his contract and not enough time to build a team over another potential gamble.

26 Mar 2022 08:57:18
I suppose in life there’s certain people you can’t debate with.

Not because they are right. It’s more because they always believe they’re right and refuse to let anyone else dare have an opinion. Lesson learned there.

26 Mar 2022 09:34:07
I would have no issue with Bowen replacing Salah but the set up of the team would need to change. At present we are overly reliant on the pure class of our forwards to win games. Players like Bowen especially excel when properly supported and played through by an offensive midfield. I believe our midfield is capable and moving more in that direction with recruitment of Thiago, development of Curtis and Harvey plus looking to purchase Carvalho. Future looks bright with or without Salah in my book.

26 Mar 2022 10:22:44
I really don't think this team is built around Salah. I think it's a perfect storm of how we set-up and his skillset coming together. The idea that we have to replace his 30 goals is just small minded too. it's like the whole thing from the 2000-2010s where fans were salivating for a 20-goal striker. Meanwhile Torres and Suarez brought us what exactly!? anyways, the team identity and core is built to move on post-Salah and in some ways I am kind of looking forward to it so we can who is next and also others step up. I'd really like to see mane come back to the right, Diaz on left and Bobby/ Jota up front. i don't see that group being any less effective for the team without Salah's name in there.

26 Mar 2022 10:32:40
Salah isn't the future even if he signing in 2-3 yrs will need to replace him.

Can we replace Salah directly? Of course not not only Salah even Fermino, Mane can't be replaced directly but we can always tweak lil bit here and there and still be effective as much as we are now or even go one or two level up.

26 Mar 2022 11:14:39
JK23, maybe if you had given an opinion i'd consider it, but you haven't since your 1st reply. You've just made childish snide remarks about my opinion. Whatever terminology you want to use is fine but we clearly set up to have Salah closest to goal. I termed that as having the team "pretty much built around Salah", others would not term it that way. Faithinworks just demonstrated perfectly how to disagree by giving an alternative opinion without just being a troll and i have absolutely no issue with that. He thinks it's a perfect combination of the system just suiting Salah and i'm cool with that. If you disagree with me whatever mate, and i respect your right to do so. You're putting words in my mouth to paint me as something i'm not, essentially targeting me and not my opinion. It's very on brand for this site but not seen this kind of behaviour from you until the Salah contract debate started and now all you do is mock anyone who isn't terrified of losing Salah, or who tries to brainstorm solutions Klopp may find. The only thing subjective about what i said is the terminology i led with because it is just an undeniable fact that Salah plays more minutes than others, closer to the goal, and takes more shots than anyone else 🤷🏻‍♂️ if you don't perceive that as 'building the team around him' that is still absolutely fine and I have no issues with it, so stop trying to paint me black please 🙏🏻

Harry/ TT, i never once said Ings and Lallana would replace Suarez's goals. Yes, I thought the goals would be shared around the rest of the team but I didn't expect Sturridge/ Ings to completely break down physically, Ibe to fall apart with his mental health, Markovic/ Balotelli/ Benteke/ Lambert to completely flop, and Sterling to force an exit. We didn't just lose Suarez did we. We lost our entire attack three in 2 years because Sturridge was never the same and Rodgers got every transfer wrong. We ended up with Coutinho carrying us on his back for 2 years until Klopp got Firmino and Lallana playing well. This current team is different though. We have good players in every position and we don't have Aspas and Borini on the bench, we have Firmino and Diaz. We don't have Rodgers picking the players, we have Klopp. We're not even dependant on one player as Jota and Mane are 2nd and 3rd top scorers in the league. In fact excluding penalties, Jota is only 2 league goals behind Salah despite having nearly half as many shots. We have Minamino deep in reserve and still odds on to finish the season in double figures.

I'm a Liverpool fan first, and a Salah fan second. Bowen is not as good as Salah. I'm not under any illusions. He is however a bloody good player in his own right with about 12 goals and 11 assists this season in all competitions with still about 15 games left. When Liverpool lost Ian Rush, John Aldridge replaced him and was not nearly as good. However Barnes and Beardsley stepped up too, Kenny changed the system, and we became arguably the best team offensively we've ever been at any point in our history straight after we lost our all time record goal scorer. Salah's replacement does not need to score 30 goals a season for us to progress as a team, they just need to be the right player. If the scouts who picked Salah now like Bowen, who are we to say they are wrong?

26 Mar 2022 12:54:11
I have to agree with MK about Salah. He is not irreplaceable.

People arrogantly turning their noses up at signing the likes of Bowen seem to forget that our legendary current front 3 weren’t exactly world-class superstars when we spent £30m or so on each of them. He’s proven himself in the premier league under a pragmatic manager, so under Klopp and our style of play, I think he’d thrive even more.

I’d personally have a look at rotating Diaz in to the central role. Yes his speed and 1v1 dribbling are exceptional, but I think we’ve already seen his work rate, first touch, movement and vision are too. I love Diogo, but he frustrates out of me centrally. I think putting him on the left, with Trent whipping balls in to the box as Diogo drifts in from out to in would result in Diogo actually becoming our main goalscorer from the right than Salah on the left.

I personally disagree with MK’s opinion on JWP, but that’s what football debates are usually centred on, opinions. I do rate Rice very highly, but I personally think we need a more attack-minded central midfielder first, to begin the take-over from Hendo. Someone with the immense work rate that’s willing to overlap down that right and provide another crossing option. The other option is that we switch sides in how we operate, with the right-sided central midfielder holding and recycling more, with Elliott on the left getting high and wide? This would fit nicely with the change of Diogo over to left who will drift inside (as per Hendo and Mo down the right) .

Either way, I do think we’ll move on from Mo a lot easier than some fear. That’s not downplaying or disrespecting how amazing the man is. He’s been and still is unbelievable and I’d love him to stay. But if he goes, I trust this club, backroom team, manager and squad to carry on without him.

26 Mar 2022 16:24:58
Good post smplfc. No worries on JWP, like you say it's an opinions game. Very good idea with Elliott on the left btw. I like that idea on paper as much as I like the idea of JWP overlapping on the right. Would be interesting to see that tried with Elliott at some point. Could be a bit like how David Silva played left of 3 for City.

26 Mar 2022 16:49:11
We’ve got no reason not to trust the people in charge. They’ve smashed it in almost all instances in the last 5 years.

Nobody thought Salah would deliver what he has when we signed him, it’s more than possible we can identify a similar coup.

My fantasy choice would be Chiesa.

26 Mar 2022 17:41:45
Mk stop playing the victim card for Christ sake.

You gave your original opinion and I simply replied. You then came back calling me ignorant and saying Christ it’s not hard to grasp and honestly don't understand how anyone can dispute this if they watch Liverpool so showing how self important you classify yourself on here.

I simply replied I wasn’t bothered in debating with you and I hadn’t read your reply and That makes me a troll.

You then go on to say if I had given an opinion you’d consider. Well to be honest I don’t care what you consider you’re just another poster on here. Last time someone went against you was Ed002 and we all know how you reacted to that.

I’m not trying to paint you any colour and Clearly if
You think I’m mocking everyone since the Salah contract then that means you must be paying very close attention to my posts. So that tells me you’re the one with a problem not me.

27 Mar 2022 14:26:58
I don't understand the fixation people have with Bowen. He's way down the list for me. Guy can't even get into the England squad and people think he's the most suitable Salah replacement? People need to start following other leagues. Raphinha, Antony, Diaby, Tsygankov and Oyarzabal are all preferable to me.

{Ed0666's Note - Diaby or Raphina would be my choices as Anthony has talent but his attitude leaves a lot to be desired…

27 Mar 2022 21:44:53
Tsygankov I think is also available on a free due to current circumstances although please correct me if I'm mistaken. I don't want to be all "ooh let's take advantage of the situation" but the guy is talented and has to continue his career somewhere. Maybe we could even do a sizeable donation to Ukrainian refugees in place of a transfer fee?

{Ed002's Note - Why would he be free to Liverpool?}

27 Mar 2022 23:27:10
I thought FIFA had made an announcement saying that players from Russian and Ukrainian clubs were free to leave.

{Ed001's Note - on loan for the rest of the season.}

28 Mar 2022 01:05:39
Ah okay cool thanks for clarifying Ed. Still an interesting development nonetheless. I'm not an expert but is hard to see Ukrainian clubs back in action by the summer. Tsygankov could be a good option if we take a look at the list of Salah replacements and don't really fancy any of them.