Five Liverpool stars who need to be replaced with upgrades, including Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah | OneFootball

The ‘Liverpool are back’ narrative proved massively premature as the woeful Premier League holders reverted to type against Manchester City after beating Aston Villa and Real Madrid in a matter of days.

The Reds had the opportunity to build further momentum and send a message to Premier League leaders Arsenal against an imperfect Man City side on Sunday, but Arne Slot‘s team instead produced a nothing performance that was arguably their biggest low to date.

Conor Bradley was the only Liverpool player to leave the Etihad with any credit, with the 3-0 defeat fully deserved despite Man City being fortunate with two goals and the visitors being unlucky to have Virgil van Dijk’s header chalked off.

Their approach to the match was unforgivable as the terrified champions retreated within themselves and gave Man City all of the confidence and freedom to utterly dominate, with the Reds having surely all but conceded their Premier League title after 11 matches of the 2025/26 campaign.

Liverpool have problems all over the pitch, with major question marks over Slot’s decision-making and their £400m-plus summer overhaul; a lot more money needs to be spent in the next two windows to get them out of this crisis.

Hugo Ekitike was Liverpool’s only summer signing to make a positive impact in their early games, but he has joined a host of other struggling stars in looking well off the pace.

Therefore, virtually all of Liverpool’s squad are under scrutiny and foreseeably could be replaced if there’s no improvement, but we have held back and only chosen five players who need to be upgraded by FSG…

Ibrahima Konate

Konate was stuck in the mud as he contributed to Liverpool coming under increasing pressure in a dire first half at the Etihad, with the Frenchman outmanoeuvred for Erling Haaland’s header before he could not get close enough to Jeremy Doku in the second half to prevent Man City’s stunning third goal.

Barring his good performances against Arsenal and Manchester United at home, Konate has been a liability this season as his slipping standards have been exposed by Liverpool’s overall defence becoming incredibly fragile.

At the moment, Liverpool would happily send Konate on a free transfer to Real Madrid, who are surely having doubts about whether to sign him. Regardless, he cannot be a starting centre-back for the Premier League giants beyond this season.

Alexis Mac Allister

One of Slot’s biggest failings this season has been his insistence on tearing apart a really functional midfield to shoehorn Florian Wirtz into his team. This has added to Liverpool’s severe lack of cohesion as they move between the thirds.

But Mac Allister’s unexpected decline has been another contributing factor, with the World Cup winner looking a shadow of the player who was one of the best midfielders in the Premier League last season.

Mac Allister’s fitness issues have complicated his start to this campaign, but he has been dominated in duels and is often left chasing shadows as Liverpool have become easy to play through.

Assuming Liverpool are going to sacrifice one of Mac Allister, Dominik Szobozlai or Ryan Gravenberch in a reshuffle to provide more solidity, the ex-Brighton man looks to be the obvious candidate to leave. He could even end up at Real Madrid alongside Konate.

Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, who will likely cost £100m, has been floated as one of Liverpool’s next signings. He is not a replica of Mac Allister, but he occupies a similar position in the midfield three and can provide more control than their current starter.

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Mohamed Salah

Salah was another struggling Liverpool player who did little to silence his critics against Man City. Youngster Nico O’Reilly did a brilliant job of keeping tight and outmuscling the 2024/25 Player of the Year, who was the clear loser of this one-on-one battle.

Last season, Slot made a concerted effort to bring Salah to the fore in attacking areas as the 33-year-old benefited from being allowed to purely focus on maximising his moments in front of goal.

But this season Salah has drifted to the periphery due to a lack of support and the instability at right-back following Trent Alexander-Arnold’s exit, with the arrival of more big-name attackers, and his loss of form, meaning he is no longer Liverpool’s only go-to outlet in the attacking half.

It is increasingly looking like 2026 will be the year that Salah bids farewell to Liverpool as a long-awaited transfer to the Saudi Pro League is still on the table.

Andy Robertson

Robertson is obviously not the player that he once was, but he has done a decent job for the team as summer signing Milos Kerkez has rightly been taken out of the firing line.

While Liverpool had not been playing to Kerkez’s strengths as his style clashes with Cody Gakpo, the ex-Bournemouth star still looked out of his depth at the start of this season and struggled to cope with the pressure of the move.

Kerkez was rash and generally all over the place defensively, with this season being a huge learning curve for the left-back as Robertson eases the burden.

Despite this, I am, perhaps naively, more confident when suggesting that Kerkez, like Wirtz and Alexander Isak, should eventually come good for Liverpool, while there are more doubts about whether Jeremie Frimpong can ever fit into this team either as a right-back or winger.

As for Robertson, it feels like next summer is the right time for him and the club to go their separate ways. At which point, Liverpool will need to sign another experienced left-back to play 20+ games in various competitions.

Virgil van Dijk

During last season’s Premier League triumph, Slot leaned heavily on Salah and Van Dijk in each half, with the latter player trusted to glue Liverpool’s defence.

And the Reds captain did a masterful job of making his backline pretty impenetrable as he returned to form following his injury woes, but there have been clear signs this season of the centre-back entering a pre-retirement decline.

Wayne Rooney’s criticism of Van Dijk has proved to be justified; the centre-back’s performance levels since signing a new contract have dropped off due to his lack of intensity.

Marc Guehi remains an obvious long-term replacement for Van Dijk in the left centre-back position, but his and Konate’s recent displays have compounded Liverpool’s severe defensive issues. This can only be fixed if there are at least two marquee signings in this department next year.