Liverpool are assessing their options to replace Mo Salah.placeholder image
Liverpool are assessing their options to replace Mo Salah. | Getty Images
Multiple options to replace Mohamed Salah have been raised as Liverpool seek a successor
Liverpool will soon be faced with the unfortunate reality of moving on from club legend Mohamed Salah, with planning already thought to be going on at the club as to who should succeed the Egyptian’s throne at Anfield.
Salah has endured the most challenging season of his Liverpool career and flattered to deceive once again on Tuesday night as the Reds lost 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie at Galatasaray, with the 33-year-old failing to make a decisive impact on proceedings whatsoever.
The result piled further pressure on Slot, who said at full-time after the Reds lost in Istanbul for the second time this season in his 100th game in charge: "It's bad deja vu, you could say. The score is the same as the match three months ago. But we played a game where we could have scored much more. We created many chances; we missed many. We were really good in the first 15 minutes. But we couldn't find the goal.”
Liverpool target stunning Nico Williams move
According to reports by The Mirror, Liverpool are prepared to pay €100million (£86.5m) this summer to land Athletic Club winger Nico Williams and help revitalise the Reds’ attack.
Multiple forward targets to succeed Salah have been named, such as RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande, but reporting states that the Reds are ‘prepared to break the bank’ for Williams by paying his massive release clause. The 23-year-old signed a new ten-year deal in Bilbao last summer but the club’s disappointing form this term has led the player to reconsider his future, with the likes of Arsenal also linked.
Williams has suffered with pubalgia in recent months – a chronic groin issue which has also affected Lamine Yamal and Cole Palmer this season – and has missed the last five matches as he attempts to recuperate ahead of the run-in and subsequent World Cup this summer. Having scored in the Euros final against England in 2024, he will hope to have a similar impact for Spain in North America.
The winger has registered four goals and six assists this season despite his recurring injury issues, and when fully fit he is one of the most electric wide players in Europe. He tends to feature exclusively from the left, rather than Salah’s position on the right – but he would certainly help to replace the Egyptian’s dynamism in attack and goalscoring threat amidst doubts over the form of Cody Gakpo on the opposite side.
Could a Tottenham star be a shock alternative?
Williams may not be the only option considered to replace Salah this summer, though, as former Liverpool right-back Glen Johnson has called for the Reds to swoop for Tottenham Hotspur star Dejan Kulusevski amidst the turmoil going on at Spurs at present.
Kulusevski has not featured this season due to a knee injury suffered at the end of last term and so his blushes can be spared from Spurs’ current relegation battle which could end with the club in the Championship. The Sweden international may not risk coming back this season but will hope to be fully fit again over the summer and might target a move away regardless of how Spurs finish the season – could Anfield be an option as the Reds look to replace Salah’s creativity and assist numbers from the right? It would certainly be a scary prospect if both Williams and Kulusevski were signed to form a deadly wide duo for the current reigning champions.
Johnson said: "Dejan Kulusevski a replacement for Mohamed Salah? Potentially. You know, you've seen him sort of glide past them like they're not moving. He definitely has that ability that can create something out of nothing.
"That skill, you can't teach that. So he's definitely got ability. If they were to go down, and he was available on the cheap, then yeah, you could understand why someone would take a risk and why not Liverpool."
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