Mohamed Salah has started the 2025/26 Premier League campaign with a goal and an assist across three fixtures. The Egyptian King has played a starring role in Liverpool’s perfect start to their title defence, claiming nine points from nine.
Jurgen Klopp’s illustrious tenure ended with a Carabao Cup title and restored qualification to the Champions League, but for a superstar like Salah, it was another year without one of the game’s biggest prizes.
He made a promise, and he kept that promise. Salah scored 34 goals and provided 23 assists for Liverpool across all competitions last season, a paragon of perfection in Arne Slot’s team, breaking the record for goal involvements in a 38-match Premier League season.
Alan Shearer
441
260
Harry Kane
320
213
Wayne Rooney
491
208
Mohamed Salah
304
187
Andy Cole
414
187
Salah is not just a Liverpool legend, but one of the greatest forwards to have ever plied their craft within the English game. However, all good things must come to an end, and Salah turned 33 in June.
The £400k-per-week forward is contracted to Anfield until the end of the 2026/27 season, but whether he can maintain his jaw-dropping output remains to be seen.
However, FSG will rest easy with the knowledge that they have redefined Liverpool’s frontline this summer and eased their veteran hero’s burden.
On transfer deadline day, Liverpool signed Alexander Isak from Newcastle United for a British record £125m fee. Isak is one of the best strikers in the world, and he joins Hugo Ekitike in having made the move to Merseyside this summer.
While sporting director Richard Hughes made the call to sell Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, who played crucial roles in winning the league last term, the recent months of spending suggest Liverpool have gone from strength to strength, and that’s without even talking about Florian Wirtz, who is anticipated to grow into one of the best players in the world under Slot’s wing.
Salah has so much robust quality to work with this season, but the fact remains that Hughes and co will need to start considering the future on Liverpool’s attacking right flank.
Liverpool's top target to replace Salah
It’s not going to come as a surprise that Liverpool have already started planning for the future. Such is FSG’s way. There is a reason Liverpool’s model is so envied: years of painstaking progress and thriftiness culminating in the summer window we have just witnessed.
And while the new contract awarded to Salah in April was provided with the belief that he would continue to play a focal role at Liverpool this season and next, it’s likely that his output will begin to dwindle as he reaches the autumn of his Premier League career.
And with that in mind, it might be worth heeding rumours that Liverpool have registered their interest in Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise nice and early.
According to Liverpool correspondent Lewis Steele, Olise has been earmarked by the Reds’ hierarchy as they compile a succession plan, with the France international believed to be right at the top of the shortlist.
Olise only joined Bayern from Crystal Palace for a £47.5m fee one year ago, but he has carried his immense form from London over to the Bundesliga.
Now considered by those at Bayern to have a value closer to £100m, Liverpool would have to break the bank once again to seal this marquee signing, but then they have shown a newfound willingness to make such a payment of late.
What Olise would bring to Liverpool
Olise scored 20 goals and set up 23 further strikes for Bayern Munich last season, instrumental in reclaiming the Bundesliga title from Bayer Leverkusen. His 43 goal involvements were far ahead of Isak’s own return of 33 goals and assists.
This term, the 23-year-old has so far scored four goals from as many matches for Die Roten.
Having previously turned the English scene over with Crystal Palace, leading talent scout Jacek Kulig to hail him as “one of the Premier League’s best players”, Olise has proven himself across various plains and would surely prove a stunning Salah heir.
Looking at how Olise compares to Salah over the past 12 months, the Les Bleus star’s advantage in terms of physicality and underlying athleticism is underscored through the metrics.
This is only natural, of course, for Salah is getting on and has tweaked his game to retain his first-class output.
Goals scored
0.53
0.65
Assists
0.45
0.43
Shots taken
3.54
3.08
Shot-creating actions
6.31
4.11
Touches (att pen)
6.18
8.91
Progressive passes
7.37
3.87
Progressive carries
4.67
4.00
Successful take-ons
2.67
1.33
Ball recoveries
4.20
2.84
Tackles + interceptions
1.64
0.73
But Liverpool could go up a gear with Olise in the mix, more dynamic and electric up top. Of course, having signed Isak, this should be the case already, but Bayern’s new hero could prove a different demon.
His ridiculous success as an Eagle suggests that he could potentially even outperform Isak in Liverpool’s first team, shining like Salah as a winger whose skill stretches beyond simply world-class.
A few years back, pundit Micah Richards predicted that Olise is “going to be a superstar”, and it’s fair to say that he was on the money with that one.
Olise’s sheer range from his right-winged berth suggests he could add a new kind of quality to Liverpool’s frontline, providing a balanced output that would be reminiscent of Salah in his prime while adding so much to the build-up and fluency of Slot’s outfit as a whole.
Isak scored 27 goals for Newcastle last season, and there can be no doubt that Liverpool have signed one of the most formidable number nines out there.
However, Olise simply has so many instruments from which to work on opponents that he might just turn out to be the cream of the crop in Liverpool’s extraordinary frontline.