Andoni Iraola has offered a clearer look at how Liverpool may try to move on from Mohamed Salah\u2019s departed role, with the club still searching for the right blend on the wings. With Salah\u2019s name formally removed from the roster just over two months ago, Liverpool\u2019s rebuild on the flanks remains unfinished.<\/p>\n
Bradley Barcola is central to the plan. The Frenchman, now Liverpool\u2019s second most expensive signing in club history, arrives with a strong record from the 2024-25 season at Paris Saint-Germain, where he produced 22 goals and 22 assists. Yet his natural position is on the left, not the right, and that distinction matters. Like Salah, Barcola is a player who prefers to move inside from a flank, but from the opposite side.<\/p>\n
That imbalance has already shown up elsewhere. Rio Ngumoha found the opening weekend against Newcastle United difficult, pinned wide by Lewis Hall and unable to make enough impact when drifting in on his weaker left foot. Liverpool\u2019s wider options now look heavily weighted towards the left, with Barcola and V\u00edctor Mu\u00f1oz added to Cody Gakpo and Ngumoha, while Maghnes Akliouche, linked earlier in the summer, ended up at Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n
Iraola hinted that Mu\u00f1oz could provide a more straightforward answer on the right. The Spaniard offers direct running, one-on-one intent and a more traditional wide role, which could help Liverpool supply Alexander Isak more quickly and more cleanly in the penalty area.<\/p>\n
Before Liverpool\u2019s Premier League meeting with Ipswich Town on Friday, Iraola said: \u201cV\u00edctor has played more games on the left in his career but has maybe been even better on the right,\u201d he mused before Liverpool are due to play Ipswich Town in the Premier League on Friday.<\/p>\n
He was also keen not to write off Ngumoha after one difficult outing. \u201cWe know Rio can play on the left and showed his qualities. He needs to develop on the right so it gives him more options to play,\u201d the boss explained. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s summer business brought four new arrivals and a spend pushing $270 million (\u00a3200 million), but there were gaps elsewhere. No midfielder arrived after Curtis Jones was sold to Inter, while Andy Robertson left without replacement. At right back, injuries have left Iraola relying on makeshift solutions, including Dominik Szoboszlai, who has been \u201cvalue\u201dd as an emergency option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iraola weighs Liverpool\u2019s left-heavy attack, with Barcola, Mu\u00f1oz and Ngumoha under review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-19079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}