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Jamie Carragher explains Liverpool's Mohamed Salah transfer issue ahead of impending Reds exit

EXCLUSIVE: Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher chats exclusively to the ECHO about Mohamed Salah and the problem the Reds face in trying to replace him

Jamie Carragher speaks exclusively to the ECHO at the Titanic Hotel, April 2026

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Jamie Carragher highlighted Mohamed Salah's durability as his best quality as the Liverpool legend reflected on the career of "one of the greatest players to have played for the club".

And the former vice-captain Carragher, who played 737 games for the Reds, believes Liverpool might have to look to a different profile of player in the search for Salah's successor.

Salah, who is the Reds' third highest goalscorer of all time with 255, announced last month that this season would be final one at Anfield, having signed from Roma for around £36m in the summer of 2017.

The Egypt captain has enjoyed a storybook career on Merseyside, winning two Premier League titles and the Champions League alongside two Carabao Cups, the FA Cup in 2022 and a first-ever Club World Cup for the Reds in December 2019.

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Salah has played 436 of the 496 Liverpool matches since he arrived and made 323 appearances from a possible 335 in the Premier League.

Carragher, who won the Champions League in 2005, says Salah's goalscoring numbers speak for themselves but he talked up the No.11's ability to make himself consistently available for the team as one of his major strengths.

"It was interesting listening to Jurgen Klopp speaking about him the other day and he give a little insight into how Mo was probably thinking when he joined the club," Carragher told the ECHO. "He was actually asking where would he play?

"He was worried about Sadio Mane playing on the right where would he play and it just shows where he has gone from that. He has come in and not 100% sure he will play in the team.

"But I remember his debut at Watford, I was at that game, he definitely scored, and I could just see straight away he was going to get goals because of the runs he was making, he so was electric. But no-one would have envisaged what he would go on to become for Liverpool

"And, you know, one of the greatest players to play for the club; one of the greatest players in the world now for how long has he been at Liverpool? Nine seasons. And it is his consistency, I think, and the thing I love is he plays every week.

"That is something I pride myself on. I look back on my own career and I am proud of that. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck with injuries but the thing I love about him is he plays every game, he wants to play every game, he wants to break records.

"He's got that mentality, I can assure you, having been at Liverpool for so long, not every player has got that. Some players like having a few good games and then they won't to come out and have a breather and almost rest on their three or four great games they have had.

"And when they are out of the team, someone will say: 'Oh we miss him now.' Because when you play every week, you're there to be shot at, you're there to have a bad game or in Salah's chance miss a chance, whatever it may be.

"And that is the biggest thing for me, not his quality but the fact that he is there for Liverpool every week."

Attention now turns to how Liverpool go about finding a player capable of following on on the right side of the attack but Carragher doesn't believe any player is ever truly 'irreplaceable' at Anfield.

The former centre-back, who was of the Gerard Houllier squad that won the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup 25 years ago, thinks the decision-makers at recruitment level may look to source a different type of wideman.

Carragher added: "I never go along with it when someone says they are irreplaceable. Go through the players we've had over the years at this football club and for me, whether you think he is a right-winger or not, he is a goalscorer, that is what he is.

"And a few years before Mo Salah, we had Luis Suarez. You know, Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, you go back on the list and I am not saying it will be easy to replace him, of course, but you might get a different type of right-winger, someone who is creating for the central strikers.

"So I don't think he is irreplaceable and I don't think it is the case either that Liverpool need to go and sign a superstar as such. Mo Salah wasn't a superstar when we signed him. He come and wasn't sure he was going to play."

"We bought superstars last summer, didn't we? And it hasn't quite worked out as of yet. Buy the right player for the right reasons, that is what Liverpool need to get back to."

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