Liverpool’s strange Salah succession plan gets biggest test yet vs Bournemouth

Liverpool’s response to the departure of club legend Mohamad Salah was strange. Andoni Iraola said he was “happy” with it, but a return to former club Bournemouth will offer the clearest indication yet as to whether they got the succession plan right.

Salah played almost exclusively on the right wing for Liverpool. 401 of his 442 appearances for the club came in that position and none came on the opposite side. The iconic Mo Salah goal was him cutting in from the right and curling the ball into the far top corner with his sublime left foot.

He left the Premier League as arguably the competition’s greatest-ever right winger, though Cristiano Ronaldo stans will definitely have plenty of largely incomprehensible stuff to say about that.

So how do you replace Mo Salah? Well, if you’re Liverpool, you don’t really.

You buy two left wingers in Victor Munoz and Bradley Barcola to compliment the other two left wingers – Cody Gakpo and Rio Ngumoha – who are already on the books.

“I think we’ve preferred at the end to have the best players more than a player that maybe is specifically for that position,” Iraola said when asked about signing Barcola for £123m at the end of the window and keeping Gakpo when they couldn’t source a right winger of similar or greater quality.

“I’m very used to demanding for all my wingers to play both sides. I know they have their preferred position, but we’ve played with Victor [Muñoz], with Cody, with Rio [Ngumoha] all in pre-season on the right. I think probably all of them have played more on the left, but I’ve been happy with them.

“Probably only Rio now is more specifically for the left side, but I think he has showed a willingness to improve and play on the right. Even Bradley, I think he’s very open and can play right and left, but obviously it will depend on the matchups and what we consider for every game, but I’m happy with the four wingers we have.”

The attempt to shift Gakpo in order to source a right winger is proof that either the club, Iraola or both wanted to sign someone more used to playing on that side, and Iraola was in no position – having just joined from Bournemouth – to be hitting out at top brass over their transfer business.

We’ll get a good indication as to just how damaging – if at all – the fuzzy transfer thinking was against Bournemouth on Sunday, as Barcola and Gakpo, the two best wingers in the squad on the basis of the money paid for the former and the outstanding form of the latter, start together for the first time.

Gakpo has made just nine of his 185 appearances for Liverpool on the right, while Barcola played in that position on just 22 occasions in 152 games for PSG.

To say it’s not their preferred position is an understatement. They’re left winger-y left wingers. But something’s got to give and a decent performance from whoever plays on the right on Sunday would be a huge boon for Iraola, Liverpool and offer a decent clue over their chance of real success this season.