Liverpool’s New Attack Strategy After Salah: Iraola’s Vision
Two months on from Mohamed Salah’s exit, Liverpool are still walking through unfamiliar territory. The Egyptian’s goals, his angles, his gravity on that right flank – all gone. In his place, Andoni Iraola isn’t searching for a copy. He’s building something different.
Barcola flips the script
Instead of chasing a like-for-like, left-footed winger to hug the right touchline, Liverpool have shifted the entire axis of their attack. The statement of intent arrived in the form of Bradley Barcola.
One of the most expensive signings in the club’s history, Barcola comes from Paris Saint-Germain with numbers to back the hype: 13 goals and seven assists last season. He’s right-footed, explosive, and at his most dangerous when he starts wide left and slices infield. In other words, he inverts the old Salah dynamic. The danger now comes from the opposite side.
With Barcola set to dominate that left channel, Liverpool’s attack suddenly leans the other way. The familiar pattern of a left-footer cutting in from the right has been replaced by a right-footer driving in from the left. The balance has flipped. The problem? The squad sheet hasn’t.
A right flank with no natural heir
As the summer window slammed shut, Liverpool were left with four players most comfortable on the left and not a single natural right winger. The gap has already shown.
Teenager Rio Ngumoha was thrown in on the right against Newcastle and found it hard going, often drifting infield or losing his angles. Cody Gakpo, asked to do a similar job against Nottingham Forest, offered marginally more but never looked truly at home out wide.
Iraola knows it. He’s seen it up close. And he’s already got one name in mind to steady that side of the pitch.
Víctor Munoz.
“Víctor has played more games on the left in his career but has maybe been even better on the right,” Iraola said before Liverpool’s Premier League meeting with Ipswich Town. It’s a telling line. The coach sees Munoz not as an emergency option, but as a genuine fit.
Munoz brings what the system now cries out for: width, direct running, and the ability to stretch a defence from the right. While Barcola cuts in from the left, Munoz can hold the chalk on his boots on the opposite side, giving Liverpool the kind of dual-threat shape that forces back lines to spread out and suffer.
Iraola’s gamble on youth
Yet Iraola is not ready to abandon his project players. For all Munoz’s suitability, the manager remains fixated on developing Ngumoha on that right flank.
“We know Rio can play on the left and showed his qualities,” Iraola insisted. “He needs to develop on the right so it gives him more options to play. He is so young. [But] because he wasn't incredible in the first game on the right, we can't say he will never play on the right anymore.”
There’s the plan in plain sight. Munoz might plug the gap now, but Ngumoha is being pushed to grow into it. Iraola wants versatility, wants his young winger to be comfortable attacking from both sides, even if the early returns have been rough.
It’s a risk. Premier League points do not wait for long-term development curves. But it’s a risk Iraola is clearly willing to take.
Isak’s service line on the line
All of this experimentation carries a direct consequence for one man in particular: Alexander Isak.
The Swede is built for the box. He thrives on quick deliveries, cut-backs, and crosses he can attack with his frame and timing. A more traditional winger on the right – someone who can beat a man on the outside and fire balls into the danger zone – could transform his output.
Right now, Liverpool’s new shape needs to feed him better. With Barcola drifting inside from the left and the right side still in flux, Isak’s supply line is being rewritten on the fly. If Munoz nails down that right-wing role, the big striker suddenly has a runway. If Ngumoha grows into it, Liverpool gain both a future star and a more complete attacking structure.
If neither solution clicks, Iraola’s bold reset starts to look like a gamble that left his No 9 starved.
Gakpo stays in the frame
Amid all this, Cody Gakpo’s story quietly rumbles on. Manchester City and Tottenham both showed late interest in the Dutchman in the summer, but Liverpool held firm. He remains a key part of the rotation, even if his best position in this new system is still being defined.
Gakpo can play across the front line, drop into pockets, or attack from the left. In a squad suddenly overloaded with left-sided options and short on right-wingers, that flexibility keeps him central to Iraola’s plans, even if it means fighting for minutes in a crowded area of the pitch.
Ipswich as an early test
Ipswich Town on Friday might not sound like a season-defining fixture, but for Liverpool’s new era, it’s a revealing checkpoint.
Iraola must find a balance that keeps Barcola dangerous, accelerates Ngumoha’s development, integrates Munoz on the right, and feeds Isak properly – all while keeping Gakpo engaged and influential. The shapes, the partnerships, the patterns on those flanks will tell their own story.
Liverpool have moved on from Salah. The question now is whether this bold, inverted, youth-driven attack can move them forward.
