Liverpool's Summer Challenge: Replacing Mohamed Salah
Anfield faces a summer of hard truths. The hugs, the tears and the tributes are giving way to a far more awkward question: what on earth does Liverpool look like without Mohamed Salah and a core of proven Premier League winners?
Arne Slot, or anyone else tasked with reshaping this squad, walks into a dressing room in flux. Andy Robertson has already said his emotional goodbyes. Salah, the “Egyptian King” and author of 257 Liverpool goals, is preparing to leave Merseyside behind. Ibrahima Konate is drifting towards free agency. Around them, serious noise swirls about Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Alexis Mac Allister and even Alisson.
This is not a tweak. It is a reset.
A giant Salah-shaped hole
Salah’s exit leaves more than a gap on the right wing. It rips out a guarantee. Goals, assists, presence, fear factor – all gone in one move.
Names have already been thrown into the conversation as potential heirs to that flank. The idea of a short-term solution now, then a major push for star wide men such as Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise or Paris Saint-Germain’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in future windows, has been floated.
John Arne Riise, speaking to GOAL in association with ToonieBet, can see why Liverpool might be tempted to stagger the rebuild, but he also hears the manager’s drumbeat.
“If you look at Arne Slot's interviews a few times now, he speaks about there's some changes to be done with the football club for next season,” Riise said. “I think some players will go and I think they're going to get some players.”
The dilemma is obvious: ambition versus budget.
“They went big last season, didn't they? Spent so much money. How much more money do they have to spend big?” Riise pointed out. The Norwegian expects last summer’s recruits to grow into the shirt, to “be better for next year as well to go step by step”, but he knows the top-end market is unforgiving.
Those marquee wide forwards would transform any side. But only if the finances allow.
“Those players you mentioned, it would have been unbelievable to sign for Liverpool,” Riise admitted. “But I don't know how much money they have to spend or if they even will spend big trying to find players who really suit the system they need.”
Complacency called out
Behind the transfer talk sits a more uncomfortable verdict on this Liverpool group. Riise sees a squad that, in places, lost its edge.
“There's changes to be done, needing to be done,” he insisted. “Because there's some players this season that have been way off form and I think it's when you're too confident in your position. I don't think they put the work in that they should have, some of the players. And you can see the performance hasn't been up to the standard either.”
The manager will always take the first hit when results dip, but Riise refuses to let the dressing room off the hook.
“Everybody blames the manager but us players, we know ourselves when we haven't been good enough and there's some players who need to step up for next season.”
That is the culture Slot walks into: a club that has lived at the top, now forced to confront the reality that some of its pillars are crumbling.
Rio Ngumoha: talent, not a crutch
Amid the turbulence, one bright, sharp beam of light has broken through. Rio Ngumoha, just 17, ended the 2025-26 season with two senior goals and a reputation rising faster than anyone at Kirkby could have scripted.
In a summer defined by Salah’s departure, it has been tempting for some to fast‑track the teenager in their minds straight into the Egyptian’s old role. Riise, a Champions League winner in 2005, sees that excitement. He also sees the danger.
“I think he needs to stay at Liverpool and he needs to get a great pre-season for next season,” he said. No loan, no hiding place. Learn the demands of the first team from the inside.
“He will get more starting time next season but he's only 17 and his body won't handle playing week in, week out. Plus, he will go up and down in performances because he's young. It's just normal.”
This is the reality check. Ngumoha is a jewel, not a shield.
“For me, he's not a starting XI regular yet because he needs time,” Riise stressed. “But he will start a lot more games next season. He will play longer games as well to get his fitness up but he won't be able to replace Mo Salah as a starter. We need someone else to come in and fill that role and do the job that Mo Salah has done.”
So the picture is clear. Ngumoha should grow in the shadow of a new right-sided leader, not be crushed by the weight of replacing one of the greatest forwards in Liverpool’s history.
The farewell banners are barely folded away and already the club stands at a crossroads. Slot must find the balance between ruthless change and patient development, between the lure of a blockbuster signing and the reality of last summer’s outlay.
Liverpool have survived upheaval before. The question now is not whether they rebuild, but how bold they dare to be when they try to replace a king.
