Liverpool begin the 2026-27 season having to answer a question that looked unthinkable a year ago: how do you replace Mohamed Salah? The Egyptian's exit from Anfield was finalised this summer when he signed for Turkish club Trabzonspor, closing a nine-year spell in which, ONE reports, he scored 257 goals in Liverpool's colours.
It is the first time since 2015 that Liverpool have opened a season without their biggest attacking threat, and the club have changed manager in the same window. Andoni Iraola has taken over from Arne Slot, whose solitary season in charge ended in a fifth-place finish.
ONE reports that Iraola's Liverpool begin the new campaign at home to Newcastle, with the Basque coach expected to lean on the high-pressing, direct approach he built his reputation on at Bournemouth rather than Slot's more controlled possession game.
The scale of the rebuild shows in the numbers. With Salah gone, Cody Gakpo — who has scored 50 goals in Liverpool colours, according to the report — is now effectively the club's senior scorer among the current squad, a stark illustration of how much of the goal threat has walked out the door.
The attacking burden instead falls on Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz. Isak arrived from Newcastle last September in a British transfer-record £125 million deal but endured a stop-start first season on Merseyside, managing only four goals amid persistent injury trouble, ONE reports.
Wirtz, one of the club's marquee signings of recent windows, is expected to operate just behind Isak and link up with a midfield already stocked with Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch. Iraola, per the report, wants Isak focused as much on movement off the ball to create space for team-mates as on his own scoring.
Liverpool's succession plan for Salah did not go entirely to script. The club had identified Yan Diomande, then of RB Leipzig, as a potential long-term answer on the right flank, but the teenager snubbed Anfield in favour of Real Madrid, where Jose Mourinho's project and a direct approach from the coach reportedly proved decisive. The move, worth close to £120 million, became the most expensive transfer for an African player in history.
With that avenue closed, ONE reports Liverpool have turned their attention to Bradley Barcola at Paris Saint-Germain, though the numbers remain far apart — PSG said to be holding out for roughly £145 million against a Liverpool offer in the region of £100 million.
None of it changes the scale of what Iraola inherits: a squad still adjusting to life after its biggest star, a forward line yet to prove it can replace 257 goals, and a fanbase watching to see whether the next Anfield era can match the last one's highs without the player who defined so much of it.
