Mohamed Salah may be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season, but the Reds reportedly have a new formation lined up after he is gone.
Salah’s time as a Reds player will reach its conclusion this summer after nine years there, confirming the news in a statement earlier this week:
“Hello, everyone. Unfortunately, the day has come. This is the first part of my farewell. I will be leaving Liverpool at the end of this season. I wanted to start by saying that I never imagined how deeply this club, this city, these people, would become part of my life.
“Liverpool is not just a football club. It’s a passion, it’s a history, it’s a spirit. I can’t explain in words to anyone not part of this club. We celebrated victory. We won the most important trophies, and we fought together through the hardest time in our life. I want to thank everyone who was part of this club throughout my time here, especially the teammates, past and present.”
It is now vital that Liverpool fill the void left by Salah, and while many supporters will want to see a world-class winger come in, The Athletic‘s James Pearce reports that this may not be the case.
While there are “no guarantees” that a big-name wide player such as Michael Olise will come in, he claims that there is “an expectation” that a winger of some kind will come in.
As well as that, Pearce adds: “Part of the plan post-Salah is that Liverpool will have the option of playing a 4-2-2-2 formation with Alexander Isak and Ekitike paired together up front, with Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai operating in front of two deeper-lying midfielders.”
Liverpool can still excel after Mohamed Salah
Losing Salah is going to be sad, given what a legendary figure he is, but he isn’t the player he was and life continues after every great footballer has moved on.
As Pearce’s report as alludes to, fitting Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak is a must – and Dominik Szoboszlai for that matter – with all of those players the new poster boys at Liverpool.
A new era is dawning, with Virgil van Dijk and Alisson’s time at Anfield slowly coming to an end, too, and it will be fascinating to see how the attackers are used.
Whether Arne Slot is the man tasked with that job remains to be seen, but as things stand, it feels more likely that a new manager will take the Reds forward from next season, namely Xabi Alonso.
