Liverpool told they ‘surely’ must sign new winger after landing wrong PSG star | OneFootball

Julien Laurens feels Liverpool “surely” must look at the right-wing role again in January, as Dougie Critchley has told the Reds they should’ve looked at a different Paris Saint-Germain winger.

Liverpool signed Bradley Barcola in the summer, replacing right-sides attacker Mohamed Salah with one on the left. That means Cody Gakpo, arguably the club’s best player this season, has been playing on the right.

Following the summer decisions, Laurens feels the Reds will have to look to the transfer market for another wide man in the winter.

He said on the Transfer Talk Podcast: “I think right now, that’s the best way of doing it, Gakpo on the right, Barcola on the left. They can swap as well and we’ve seen that against Bournemouth.

“I think if you ask Gakpo ‘where would you want to play’ he’d say the left-hand side, and that’s where Rio [Ngumoha] would want to play, that’s where probably [Victor] Munoz would want to play and that’s certainly where Barcola would want to play.

“So you’ve got a situation where surely in January, you have to look again. Because I think one of the reasons why Gakpo was thinking about leaving, on top of Liverpool needing maybe to bring some money in, I think Gakpo knew that his favourite left-hand side was going to be taken by Barcola anyway.

“I think from his point of view, [he] was like, ok, I can play on the right-hand side but I would rather go somewhere where I would play on the left-hand side, where I think is the best position for me.

“I think somebody like [Yankuba] Minteh, somebody who can play on the right-hand side, they’ll probably look at that in January again, I would think.”

Liverpool signed wrong PSG winger

Critchley has detailed how Liverpool might have signed the wrong man in the summer, as Kang-in Lee, who also left PSG in the summer and now has two goals and an assist for Atletico Madrid this season, might have made more sense.

He said: “A player that I think they probably could’ve looked at in the summer, and a lot of Liverpool fans earlier in the summer when they were expecting this bis name to arrive to replace Salah on the right-hand side may have objected at the time.

“But Kang-in Lee, who left PSG to go to Atletico Madrid, and can play almost a bit more as an interior player than a natural right-winger, but can play on the right wing as well.

“Really creative, very good for PSG whenever he was used over the last few years and has started really well at Atletico Madrid.

“That is the sort of player that I think they should have looked for on the right-hand side. Everything else just feels a little bit awkward, and you’ve also got to factor in that Ronald Araujo has arrived at right-back and I think he’s played really well defensively.

“Made a massive impact there and his relationship with [Jeremy] Jacquet seems to be developing as well, but he’s quite limited going forward.

“So there’s an entirely new right-hand side which used to be Liverpool’s great strength in the Trent [Alexander-Arnold], Salah days.

“Now it just feels like they’re sort of starting from scratch with the squad and a forward line that doesn’t really make sense.”