**Steven Gerrard has named Michael Olise as an ideal replacement for Mohamed Salah this summer when the Egyptian leaves the club on a free transfer after nine years at Anfield.**
Liverpool, in recognition of Salah’s service to the club, will let him go for free at the end of the season, although it will free his £485,000 per week wages from the club’s wage bill. Per season, the contract the 33-year-old signed in 2025 is worth £25.2m.
However, as much as freeing up big wages can have a positive effect, losing Salah’s offensive charm despite his struggles this season will be a massive blow.
In his last 87 games for Liverpool, since the start of the 2024-25 campaign, Salah has 44 goals and 32 assists in all competitions. A total of 76 goal contributions at a rate of a goal or assist every 103 minutes.
Gerrard believes Olise is the only player out there at the moment who is a like-for-like replacement anywhere near the level Salah has been operating at for Liverpool.
_“I think the concern, if you’re trying to replace Salah, in terms of like, for like, I think there’s very few out there that you can go and grab,”_ Gerrard said in a [talkSPORT](https://talksport.com/football/4166446/steven-gerrard-michael-olise-liverpool-transfer/) interview on Tuesday.
_“Olise would be one, I would say, but I don’t think he’d be available, but from experience, being around Liverpool as a player, and also since I’ve left, Liverpool’s recruitment team will have different options, and that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll look for a like-for-like.”_
If they do go for Olise, Liverpool will have to spend north of £100m, with recent reports suggesting the French superstar will cost interested clubs in the region of £120m. The affordability for Liverpool is interesting, especially given [reports suggest Bayern do not consider Olise unsellable](https://live4liverpool.com/the-reality-about-michael-olise-to-liverpool-why-120m-transfer-is-more-than-possible/).
That said, will Liverpool go for such big spending transfers in the summer after their £460m investment into the likes of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike? Remains to be seen.
Gerrard continued: _“But Liverpool have got a fantastic record of replacing top players that have gone before, so I’ve got every confidence from a recruitment point of view that they’ll have different types of options, not necessarily a like-for-like._
_“One thing is for certain, they have to try and replace some kind of his goal involvement in terms of goals and assists, which is extremely difficult because he’s been incredible for Liverpool for many years.”_
Olise’s numbers are freakish and suggest he should be the man to sign to replace Salah
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Liverpool’s aggressive spending last summer will need to be replicated if they are going to sign a suitable replacement for Salah this window.
Olise’s numbers for Bayern Munich are similarly frightening when compared to Salah.
This season, the Frenchman has 16 goals and a whopping 28 assists in 40 games for Bayern.
Including last season’s tally, his 36 goals and 51 assists in 95 games is very comparable to Salah. His 98 minutes per goal contribution is superior to Salah’s rate over a similar sample size, but Bundesliga tax must be considered, given the greater challenge the Premier League poses.