Liverpool's Right-Side Challenge: Balancing Barcola and Salah's Legacy
Bradley Barcola was the statement signing of Liverpool’s summer – £123 million pulled him out of Paris Saint-Germain and into Anfield, a Champions League winner arriving with the price tag and pedigree to match.
There’s just one issue.
He loves the left wing.
So do Cody Gakpo, Rio Ngumoha and Victor Munoz.
Andoni Iraola has walked into a season where his four most eye-catching wide forwards all feel most at home drifting in from the same flank, while the shadow of a 257-goal phenomenon still looms large over the right. Mohamed Salah’s departure left a chasm, not just in goals, but in balance. The right side used to pick itself. Now it’s a puzzle.
Minteh, Sarr and a Window That Never Opened
Liverpool knew the problem. They went hunting for solutions.
Yankuba Minteh at Brighton. Ismaila Sarr at Crystal Palace. Both natural right-sided threats, both heavily linked, both the subject of bids. Liverpool pushed, but never broke through the resistance of their Premier League rivals. No fee, no agreement, no late twist.
At that point, the club could have panicked. Gone for option C, D or E. Paid over the odds for someone who simply stands in the right channel and cuts in on his left. Instead, the brakes went on.
The decision from within Anfield was clear: wait. Use what’s already in the building. Reassess in January.
“You Don’t Just Buy to Fill a Gap”
Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy understands that stance. Speaking to GOAL, via Snabbare, he pointed to the logic behind leaving the squad slightly lopsided on paper.
He highlighted the failed moves for Minteh and Sarr, acknowledging that Liverpool clearly recognise the lack of a natural right winger. But he backed the club’s refusal to sign a body for the sake of it.
Murphy has seen Barcola operate off the right. He believes Gakpo has the intelligence to adapt there as well – and not just survive, but score and create. He referenced a “great assist” Gakpo produced from the right in the Forest game as evidence of that versatility.
From his perspective, once Sarr and Minteh were off the table, Liverpool’s hierarchy simply chose not to compromise their criteria. No panic, no ransom fees, no short-term fix that clogs the pathway for the talent they already trust.
As Murphy put it, you don’t always get what you want in a window, and Liverpool have already spent big. An “orthodox” right-sided forward would be ideal, he admitted, but he still sees enough in Munoz, Gakpo and even Barcola to carry the load on that flank for now.
Left-Footers on the Right, Results on the Board
The early weeks of the 2026-27 season have tested that theory.
Gakpo, Ngumoha, Munoz and Barcola have all taken turns patrolling the right. It hasn’t always been smooth, but it has been effective.
The standout moment so far came at Bournemouth. Gakpo, starting from the right, burst down the touchline and whipped in a low cross that unsettled the defence and found Alexander Isak for the winner. It was the kind of move that used to belong to Salah – same side, different profile, same end result: three points.
That’s been the theme. The names have changed, the shapes and angles are different, but Liverpool keep finding ways to win.
Across the Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup, Iraola’s side remain unbeaten. The lack of a “new Salah” hasn’t yet turned into a crisis. It hasn’t even become a genuine priority.
January Questions, Unbeaten Answers
The story isn’t finished. Far from it.
Interest in Minteh and Sarr has not gone away and is expected to resurface in early 2027 or next summer. Both players are understood to be keen on a move to Anfield. The right flank will come back under the microscope once the window opens and the stakes rise.
For now, though, Liverpool are living in a strange but successful reality: their biggest signing prefers the left, their most natural right-wing successors play elsewhere, and yet the results keep flowing.
The real question is not whether they replace Salah like-for-like. It’s this: if they’re still unbeaten by the time January arrives, will Liverpool dare to disrupt a system that’s winning without him?
