Barcelona the winners: Richard Hughes takes Liverpool down anti-Mo Salah path | OneFootball

Liverpool have gone down an anti-Mo Salah path. Barcelona are early winners of that.

Jurgen Klopp's UEFA Champions League and Premier League-winning side of 2018 through 2020 is arguably the greatest Liverpool side ever. It's in the discussion, certainly, and there's no question that it's the greatest since Kenny Dalglish's 1988 team.

It was a side built through intelligent transfers, with Liverpool signing specific profiles to fit specific jobs. They built is season on season, seeing how players would adjust and then picking out who would compliment them well.

Liverpool signed Sadio Mane and then Roberto Firmino settled as a False 9. What would compliment that setup best? Switching Mane to the other flank and signing someone to cut in from the right.

That thinking landed Liverpool Mohamed Salah, who wasn't considered one of the world's best players at the time but was the exact profile needed at the time. Of course, when you put the right players in the right setup, you open the door to a dramatic rise in ability.

That's something we saw happen all over the squad. Liverpool weren't built from record-breaking signings but instead from those who fit the current environment and were able to hit new heights as a result.

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Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Gini Wijnaldum...

Basically every player who arrived fit that description. None more so than Salah, of course, who was the poster boy of the mentality. A mentality, you've got to say, Liverpool have now walked away from.

They're no longer showing that patience or ability to find the right gem. Instead, Liverpool are happy to spend enormous amounts on good players and then figure it out later.

That's not actually working, however. The new way of doing things has moved them backwards quite some way, despite the massive financial outlay. And it's clubs like Barcelona taking advantage.

They're about to sign Karim Adeyemi from Borussia Dortmund for a ridiculous fee of €22m (per the Athletic). That's around a fifth of what Liverpool tried to sign Yan Diomande for.

Now, is Diomande the better player? Yes. Is he five times better? No. And Adeyemi just so happens to be exactly the profile Liverpool are after: a pacey winger for the right-hand side who can operate across the forward line.

Why wasn't this a deal for Liverpool? Adeyemi is the kind of smart signing that gives the squad the right player for the job. Instead, they were never involved and looked elsewhere.

This isn't to say that Adeyemi will definitely be a success, nor is he the kind of player you can't find elsewhere. But in a poor right-wing market, this feels like a no-brainer to get involved in. It's the kind of deal that made Liverpool great and it's time they got back to this kind of business.