It's settled: €40m star is Liverpool's pick to replace Mo Salah | OneFootball

Liverpool's pick to replace Mohamed Salah is settled. The Reds will have to move forward on this one - but he could become a true star.

Mo Salah left Liverpool this summer and that wasn’t a shock. He had, after all, told everyone this would happen well in advance.

Now, you’d think that the club would then make sure, beyond any question, that they sign a replacement. They did try to do that, with a massive push to sign Yan Diomande from RB Leipzig but they failed and simply didn’t have a backup.

To be fair, the market was truly dreadful and we couldn’t see many great options out there. We did think they’d actually sign someone, though.

Instead, Liverpool didn’t sign a single right-forward. To make matters worse, Salah was the only one in the squad anyway, so the Reds currently boast zero (depending on how you categorise Jeremie Frimpong).

It’s left things a bit unclear and we now know that Andoni Iraola will have to call on someone to play out of position in every game. That will typically mean one of the four left-forwards in the group moving over to the right.

And within that group, there’s a clear winner for us. Or loser, depending on how you look at it. The point is, there’s one in that group who looks like a much sounder bet as the right-sided player.

Victor Munoz on the right

Victor Munoz looks like the best fit, by some distance, for the right. That's mainly because his playing style simply suits either side - direct, instinctive running that relies on incredible reaction times.

Munoz will simply sprint at a player and react to what happens next. A deflection? He'll follow it. Gets past him on the flank? He'll keep going and drive the ball across. Move inside? He'll attack the box.

He's not, for instance, Cody Gakpo. Gakpo's game heavily relies on being able to cut inside and get his head up - he essentially never wants to be getting down the outside and looking to get the ball into the box. He's not a winger, basically, but a playmaker from wide.

Rio Ngumoha is too dependent on cutting inside to attack the goal - and asking him to move away from that at 18 is a bit much. Similarly, asking Bradley Barcola to adjust his game after paying €130m for him is just silly.

But Munoz suits the role and we don't think it'll have any real negative effect on his game. That looked clear simply from pre-season and certainly looked that way as he scored off the flank against Nottingham Forest.

The Spaniard wasn't signed to replace Salah but he now finds himself as the man to do it. And for what it's worth, he looks like he can smash it there.