Liverpool's Bold Attack Rebuild: Targeting Barcola, Mbaye, and Endrick

Liverpool’s attack is being stripped down and rebuilt, and the blueprint is anything but cautious.

After a season in which Anfield too often felt narrow and predictable, Liverpool have turned the transfer window into a search for pure width and raw speed. The brief is simple: stretch teams, scare full-backs, and restore the sense that this forward line can run over the horizon and keep going.

They started the summer with Yan Diomande at the top of the list. He was earmarked as the man to drag Liverpool’s attacks back towards the touchlines, to give them that missing gear in transition. That chase has gone cold, but the idea behind it has not. If anything, it has intensified.

Barcola and Mbaye: raiding Paris

Attention has moved to Paris. Liverpool are deep in talks with Paris Saint-Germain over Bradley Barcola, and, according to L’Équipe, are preparing to lay down a huge marker: an offer of €115m for the 21-year-old.

That number tells its own story. This is not a speculative punt. It is Liverpool paying Champions League prices for Champions League devastation out wide, a direct answer to last season’s lack of pace on the flanks.

The raid on PSG does not stop there. Journalist Fabrice Hawkins reports that Liverpool are also pushing to sign Ibrahim Mbaye, working on that deal in parallel. Two young forwards, both built to run, both capable of dragging defences backwards and sideways, both offering the kind of urgency this team has sorely missed.

Those two alone would change the look and feel of Liverpool’s front line. The attack would suddenly have legs again, angles again, jeopardy again.

But the plan, as it stands, runs deeper.

Gakpo’s future and a gap on the right

The arrival of Barcola is expected to trigger movement elsewhere. Cody Gakpo, who has never quite settled into a defined role on Merseyside, is widely anticipated to join Tottenham Hotspur if the Frenchman comes through the door.

If that happens, Liverpool’s options on the right remain thin. Mbaye would effectively stand alone as a natural fit for that side. For a club that has lived off relentless competition in the front three, that is nowhere near enough.

Which is why the conversation at Anfield keeps circling back to one name.

Endrick: the Firmino echo

Liverpool have tracked Endrick since 2022. They know the player, they know the profile, and now the door has opened. The Brazilian has given the green light to a move away from Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu, and Liverpool are well placed to pounce.

Endrick is not just another forward. He is a potential system piece, a player whose movement and intelligence could echo Roberto Firmino’s influence in a new era if the conditions are right.

Those conditions, Liverpool believe, exist at Anfield.

The squad is crying out for a left-footed attacker; astonishingly, there isn’t one in the current forward unit. They also need someone who can start from the right yet step inside and operate through the middle. Endrick fits both demands. He prefers playing centrally, can drift wide, and brings the kind of penalty-box presence that becomes priceless when games tighten.

With Hugo Ekitike sidelined until 2027, the need for a central option is not theoretical. It is immediate.

A triple signing with a statement

Barcola from PSG. Mbaye from PSG. Endrick from Real Madrid.

On paper, it is a frightening triple signing. In practice, it would be a declaration that Liverpool are not interested in gentle evolution. Youth, pace, goals, and big-game experience would arrive in one sweeping, audacious move, with all three having featured on the World Cup stage this summer.

It would change how opponents set up at Anfield. It would change how Liverpool counter. It would change the ceiling of this squad.

The club have identified the problem. The targets are clear. The money, by the sound of it, is ready.

Now the question is simple: will Liverpool push this plan over the line and send a message to the rest of Europe, or let the most daring version of their rebuild slip away?