Liverpool’s most-used wingers have combined for 17 goals this season, and it has become obvious that it is a position that needs addressing in the summer transfer window.
Arne Slot has been drawn on a number of big topics this season. The Liverpool head coach has certainly not been able to field questions from increasingly more inquisitive reporters as easily as he did 12 months ago, and some of the answers aren’t really adding up.
Liverpool find themselves back in a moment of strange balance.
The Reds had 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha to thank for their recent fortunes in the FA Cup, and if that doesn’t quite sum up this season, then nothing will.
But it’s the idea of Ngumoha in particular which now draws very specific attention to something the manager recently doubled down on – the idea that Liverpool aren’t in need of additional wingers right now, or perhaps for the foreseeable.
The signs for new wingers are obvious
Rio Ngumoha FA Cup Wolves. March 6, 2026. PA
It was a strange adamance from the Dutchman, who was perhaps most robust in his response, given the ongoing attempt to downplay the significance of Ngumoha’s impact, due to his tender years.
Slot said: “It’s not only about that individual.
“If we don’t generate enough from the sides then maybe we don’t switch the ball fast enough, we don’t bring them into enough open situations to improve these players.
“We have, of course, a 17-year-old player (Ngumoha) who is improving more and more and more. It’s not always the transfer market; the answer is also the training ground and trying to improve that part.
“But again, show me which teams are doing that so much better than us in the Premier League.”
Liverpool Winger Output: 2025/26 Season
Player Mins Goals Assists
Mohamed Salah 2,585 9 8
Cody Gakpo 2,733 8 5
Rio Ngumoha 483 2 1
*All competitions. Data correct as of March 12, 2026.
Slot went on to back up his point by noting that in recent matches Barcelona haven’t been moving the ball quickly enough out wide to bring wonderkid Lamine Yamal into the game, while stressing that modern football has all but made the role of the winger impossible, given how robust and physical most teams now are across all positions at the back.
It’s a measured response from the manager and he’s right to protect Ngumoha, but it’s one which feels a tad disingenuous while making little sense.
The black and white of the current malaise is Liverpool have issues that need to be rectified and solved. Liverpool are also a club who have prided themselves under the FSG stewardship on identifying issues and finding high level solutions.
And so, with the likes of Yan Diomande reportedly being heavily scouted and ongoing links with Michael Olise resurfacing, any suggestion that Liverpool are not in the market for wingers just doesn’t hold water.
Last summer’s oversight having a knock-on effect
HONG KONG - Saturday, July 26, 2025: Liverpool's unused player Luis Díaz on the bench before the Hong Kong Football Festival 2025 pre-season match between Liverpool FC and AC Milan at the Kai Tak Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Any elite squad needs talent across the board, it’s the simple mathematics of success.
Enough good players stocked across all positions, creating an internal competition and trained by a world-class coaching staff often results in silverware. This is now tried and tested for Liverpool.
Yet some eight months ago, when the hierarchy opted to strike a deal with Bayern Munich’s heavy pockets over a Luis Diaz transfer, a like-for-like winger was not recruited.
The message then, as it remains now, was Ngumoha would be afforded opportunities and his route into the match day XI would not be ‘blocked’.
And now here we are, with a huge portion of the fanbase crying out for Ngumoha to start matches and Slot having to swat away questions about signing wingers.
The proof hasn’t really been in the pudding until now. Diaz wasn’t replaced, Ngumoha has featured little, and those who have worn the red shirt in the interim have quite consistently underperformed.
Cody Gakpo has received a concerning amount of flak this season, and while not totally justified, his numbers have remained poor. On the opposing flank, Mohamed Salah’s downturn has likewise been all too publicly noted.
It means, as of right now, Liverpool do in fact boast only Ngumoha as the one out-and-out winger who could come in to shake up the starting XI on the flank.
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND - Sunday, February 22, 2026: Liverpool's Arne Slot (R) and Federico Chiesa after the FA Premier League match between Nottingham Forest FC and Liverpool FC at the City Ground. Liverpool won 1-0. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Other options fall only as far as Federico Chiesa as a makeshift winger, or Jeremie Frimpong, who was bought as a defender and has spent the last six years of his senior career as an advanced full-back.
In the recent FA Cup win at Wolves, Frimpong joined the action as a winger despite Dominik Szoboszlai featuring at right back.
Liverpool’s most consistent player this season, shoehorned out of position, while the defensive summer signing becomes a de facto winger again. It doesn’t feel sustainable.
Arne Slot is down to the bare bones
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Tuesday, March 10, 2026: Liverpool's Mohamed Salah is replaced by substitute Jeremie Frimpong during the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 1st Leg match between Galatasaray SK and Liverpool FC at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Liverpool are very short on numbers, there is no getting away from this. To pretend otherwise feels foolish at this point.
There may also be bigger things at play here. Slot’s resolute stance on wingers comes at a time when the current set-up; right-footed Gakpo cutting in from the left and left-footed Salah cutting in from the right, very much fits the manager’s tried and tested approach.
Before departing Feyenoord, Slot fielded Yankuba Minteh (left-footed) and Igor Paixao (right-footed) on the right and left wing, respectively, in keeping with his current compact forward line model, which promotes narrow wing play, overlapping with a main striker and using a central playmaker (Florian Wirtz) to unlock the lines.
BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND - Saturday, January 24, 2026: Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch (L) and Cody Gakpo before the FA Premier League match between Bournemouth AFC and Liverpool FC at Dean Court. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
The only issue, this has so far fallen flat for Liverpool, and it’s now March.
Alexander Isak still needs to fit into things, and a regular polished position has to be found for Hugo Ekitike – the duo cannot just endlessly rotate for one another and occasionally play together.
Yet, with a growing market for wingers now apparent, anyone would be naive to think Liverpool are not heavily analysing, particularly given the concerning state of attacking statistics this season.
Liverpool have a transfer market opportunity this summer
3DR18JJ Leipzig, Poland. 15th Feb, 2026. Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig seen during the Bundesliga match between RB Leipzig and VfL Wolfsburg at Red Bull Arena. Final score RB Leipzig 2 : 2 VfL Wolfsburg. (Photo by Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA Images/Sipa USA) Credit: Sipa US/Alamy Live News
Slot may well be correct that the remit of the modern-day winger has changed exponentially and got increasingly more difficult as a result, but that doesn’t alter the fact that within the next six months, some of the biggest names in world football may be primed for transfers.
Athletic Club’s Nico Williams and Milan’s Rafa Leao are both, in due course, poised to move on, as was Rodrygo before his ACL injury. These are the elite tier, but add to this list Diomande, Lyon’s Malick Fofana and Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche.
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Takefusa Kubo is repeatedly linked with a Premier League move, while Savinho ought to soon be on the market given Manchester City have already trialled and tested his involvement and decided Antoine Semenyo is the better option.
With Liverpool likely to move on Chiesa in the summer, and the future of Salah now sorrowfully under question, it seems an absolute certainty Richard Hughes and Co. will have to recruit attacking wide-men.
Slot’s sentiment of Liverpool not needing wingers boils down to the fact none can be brought in right now, but the summer window has to promote a much different narrative.