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Mohamed Salah has announced he will depart Liverpool at the end of the season, bringing an end to nine incredible years at Anfield with a tremendous list of accolades.
With an FA Cup and a Champions League still to compete for, the Egyptian will be motivated to end his legendary time at Anfield on a high note, after a disappointing season that sees Liverpool 5th with seven games to go in the Premier League.
Those upstairs, with his wages off the books (one of the highest at the club too), will be looking towards the summer transfer window already, with the question on most fans lips wondering who will replace the 33-year-old.
Last summer, Liverpool spent over £450 million on reinforcements, most notably Florian Wirtz and a Premier League record in Newcastle striker Alexander Isak. After the acquisition of Hugo Ekitike, who has been a firm success at Anfield so far, many questioned the need for the Swedish striker, especially during this injury-plagued season. But was the plan to always have the Swede partner the Frenchman, regardless of Salah’s form this season?
In offensive football, the late 2010’s and early 2020’s was a period which, despite the world class strikers that dominated headlines like Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski, was also dominated by wingers. In the Premier League alone during such periods, players like Mo Salah, Sadio Mané, Eden Hazard and Raheem Sterling would regularly steal the show to bring their sides glory.
Particularly Salah and Mané, as part of one of the best front threes the league has ever seen, operated as wide strikers that wouldn’t play as deep as traditional wingers would during the 2000’s. Especially in Jürgen Klopp’s system, they were also the first line of defence with their relentless pressing and high-energy counter-attacking capabilities.
However, since 2022 the decline of winger-led offenses has come to a head in 2026, with many leagues across Europe suffering from a lack of world class wingers that dominate their league. Instead, attacks led by talismanic strikers have become popular once more, another symptom of football reverting (not regressing) to a much more traditional style where these large-framed out and out nines are relied upon to lead the line. Alongside this, full backs are now expected to be defence-focused rather than “flying fullbacks” that contribute to the attack and the midfield prioritises holding midfielders more than forward-thinking eights.
Noticing this change, the Reds may have pursued Isak and Ekitike to have two of the best strikers at their disposal. Salah turned 33 last summer, and the greats aren’t around forever. Time is something Isak and Ekitike have on their side, with the former turning 27 in September and the latter turning 24 in June. That is the basis for the future where, if Isak can find the form he found on Tyneside and the Frenchman can continue to match his current levels if not surpass them, can lead Liverpool to future glory.
Should Arne Slot be in the dugout still this summer, this would mean a tweak to his system, which has previously seen the two play alongside each other in a 4-4-2, where Gakpo and Wirtz operated as wingers. Though the German notched two assists this game, this system would severely stunt his abilities as a central player, where he does his best work.
A lot of hypotheticals rely on such a system and partnership working. It may not be Slot working such a system out this summer, with Xabi Alonso heavily linked with his job. Whoever leads Liverpool into the 2026/27 season, with a lack of wingers in the market good enough to even think about filling Salah’s boots, it doesn’t seem too far to think a strike partnership to spread glory round the fields of Anfield Road.
Thumbnail credit: Rolandhino1 via Wikimedia Commons.
