Liverpool's Attack Uncertainty: The Need for a Right-Winger

Liverpool’s attack has rarely felt this uncertain.

A club that once rolled out a settled front three now finds itself a month from the transfer deadline with questions everywhere and answers arriving slowly, if at all. The post-Mohamed Salah era has started not with a bang, but with a pause.

Salah is in Trabzon now. Hugo Ekitike is sidelined until at least January. For a team that has built its identity on relentless, rotating firepower, that is a brutal combination. Everyone knew change was coming at Anfield this summer; few expected it to feel this muddled.

A right-wing hole, a left-wing obsession

Liverpool’s biggest problem is obvious. They need someone to pick up Salah’s mantle on the right. Yet most of the forwards linked with the club are, curiously, left-wingers.

In modern football, that isn’t a disaster. Coaches crave flexibility, wide forwards switch flanks, and systems morph within games. But if Liverpool want a player who can walk straight into the team and shoulder the responsibility Salah carried for years, they need a natural right-sided option. Someone who lives on that flank, not just visits it.

Instead, the name gathering momentum is Bradley Barcola.

The line from Anfield Sector was blunt: “Bradley Barcola would be signed to play left wing for Liverpool, not the Salah replacement.” The message was just as stark for Cody Gakpo. If Liverpool get Barcola out of Paris, he walks straight ahead of the Dutchman in the pecking order.

Negotiations with PSG are moving, but slowly. The French champions are currently standing firm on a valuation north of €150m, a figure that would test even Liverpool’s resolve in a window where several positions need attention. Yet the very fact that Liverpool are entertaining such a deal tells you how they now view Gakpo.

Gakpo’s slide and the rise of a new idea

Not long ago, Gakpo looked like part of the solution.

In 2024-25 he was one of Liverpool’s most effective attackers, trading blows with Luis Díaz for that left-wing berth and delivering one of his best campaigns since arriving at Anfield. He looked sharp, decisive, plugged into the team’s rhythm.

Then came 2025-26.

With Díaz out of the picture on the left at the start of the season, Gakpo had the flank to himself. Instead of kicking on, his form dipped. Badly. Performances grew flat, then frustrating. For long stretches of the campaign he was, by any reasonable measure, poor.

The crowd saw it. The calls grew louder for Rio Ngumoha to be given a run, and eventually Arne Slot relented. The youngster got his games. The dynamic changed. So did the conversation about the future of that position.

From that moment, the links to a new left-winger were inevitable. Names surfaced, options were weighed. Among them, Barcola stands out.

Why Barcola changes the equation

The appeal is obvious.

Barcola comes off a season in which he contributed to 20 goals across all competitions. He did it not just from the left, but across the entire front three. That kind of versatility is exactly what modern elite sides crave, and it is where he pulls clear of Gakpo in the eyes of many at Liverpool.

Gakpo can operate centrally and off the left, but Barcola’s range and output last term suggest a more dynamic, adaptable profile. In a forward line that has lost its most predictable source of goals and its attacking reference point on the right, that matters.

Liverpool are juggling “a lot of moving parts” in this window. Players could still leave. Others may yet arrive. But the logic of a straight evolution on the left is hard to ignore: if you can effectively swap Gakpo for Barcola, the argument goes, you do it.

The question now is whether Liverpool are willing to meet PSG anywhere near that €150m-plus mark, and what that would mean for the rest of their summer. Because if Barcola does walk through the Shankly Gates as the new first-choice left-winger, Gakpo’s role becomes brutally simple.

He becomes the back-up. And for a club in flux, that single decision might say more about the direction of this rebuild than any press conference ever could.