Liverpool's Summer Rebuild: The Salah Question and Future Challenges

Anfield faces a summer of hard truths. The emotion of the farewells is real, the nostalgia heavy, but the scale of the rebuild is even heavier.

Andy Robertson, a symbol of the Jurgen Klopp era’s relentlessness, has said his goodbyes. Mohamed Salah, the “Egyptian King” and the man who dragged Liverpool through tight title races with 257 goals, is preparing to walk away from Merseyside. Around them, uncertainty swirls: Ibrahima Konate is drifting towards free agency, while Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Alexis Mac Allister and even Alisson have all been pulled into the slipstream of exit speculation.

This is the landscape Arne Slot walks into. Or whoever ultimately takes the job of reshaping a squad that once knew exactly how to win the Premier League and now threatens to splinter.

The Salah Question

Strip everything else away and one issue towers above the rest: how do you replace Salah?

Liverpool are losing their four-time Golden Boot winner, their right‑side guarantee of goals and chaos. Names have already started to circle. Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise. Paris Saint-Germain’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. The idea has been floated of a short-term stop-gap now, with a blockbuster move parked for a future window.

John Arne Riise, speaking to GOAL in association with ToonieBet, cut straight into the tension that surrounds those plans.

He pointed to Slot’s early interviews, where the incoming coach has been open about change. “He speaks about there's some changes to be done with the football club for next season. I think some players will go and I think they're going to get some players,” Riise said.

That sounds simple. It isn’t.

“They went big last season, didn't they? Spent so much money. How much more money do they have to spend big?” Riise asked, putting his finger on the financial reality. The club threw serious funds at the midfield last summer. Those signings, he argued, should look stronger with a year of adaptation behind them, allowing Liverpool to “go step by step” rather than rip everything up again.

The dilemma is obvious. Those marquee names being linked would transform any attack, but they come with the kind of price tags that test even Liverpool’s carefully controlled model. “It would have been unbelievable to sign for Liverpool,” Riise admitted of the targets mentioned, before stressing the unknowns: how much money is actually available, and whether the club will “spend big trying to find players who really suit the system they need”.

Standards Slipping

The romantic version of Liverpool’s season focuses on the goodbyes. The harsher version looks at a campaign where too many performances sagged below the club’s own standards.

Riise did not dance around that. He expects movement this summer not just because contracts are expiring or icons are ageing, but because some players have simply not done enough.

“There's changes to be done, needing to be done, because there's some players this season that have been way off form,” he said. His diagnosis was blunt: complacency.

“When you're too confident in your position. I don't think they put the work in that they should have, some of the players. And you can see the performance hasn't been up to the standard either.”

Managers usually absorb the blame when a season falls short. Riise pushed responsibility back towards the dressing room. “Everybody blames the manager but us players, we know ourselves when we haven't been good enough and there's some players who need to step up for next season.”

That is the culture Slot inherits: a squad that has known the highest level, but one where comfort has crept into certain corners. The rebuild is not just about new faces. It is about jolting the existing ones back into edge and urgency.

The Kid and the Crown

Amid the turbulence, one bright spark has cut through: Rio Ngumoha.

At 17, the teenager has already written his name into the senior scoresheet twice. In a season that frayed at the edges, he ended it with his reputation enhanced, not diminished. Naturally, that has sparked talk. Could he be part of the solution to life after Salah?

Riise likes the talent. He likes the timing. But he is wary of the weight.

“I think he needs to stay at Liverpool and he needs to get a great pre-season for next season,” he said. No loan, no sending him out to disappear into someone else’s system. Keep him close, build him properly.

Riise expects Ngumoha to see more of the pitch. More starts, more minutes, more responsibility. Within reason. “He's only 17 and his body won't handle playing week in, week out,” he warned. Form will spike and dip. That is not a flaw; that is what 17 looks like at elite level.

“So for me, he's not a starting XI regular yet because he needs time,” Riise added. The plan, in his view, is gradual elevation: longer games, more involvement, a bigger role. But not the role.

“He will play longer games as well to get his fitness up but he won't be able to replace Mo Salah as a starter. We need someone else to come in and fill that role and do the job that Mo Salah has done.”

That line cuts to the heart of Liverpool’s summer. Ngumoha can excite. He can grow. He can even become a central pillar of the next era. What he cannot do, not yet, is walk into Salah’s position and carry the burden that comes with it.

A Defining Window

So Liverpool stand at a crossroads. A legendary forward line breaking up. Senior winners edging towards the exit. A coach stepping into the shadow of one of the club’s greatest modern figures. A squad that needs both a shake and a lift.

Riise’s view captures the mood: curiosity laced with concern. “I'm going to be excited to watch this summer,” he said, because he knows change is coming and knows it cannot be cosmetic.

Liverpool must buy smart. They must confront uncomfortable truths about form and attitude. They must protect their brightest young talent without smothering his rise. Above all, they must answer the question that will define the Slot era before it even begins.

Who wears the crown on the right when the Egyptian King leaves his throne?