Liverpool’s Salah Succession Plan: Akliouche Emerges as Key Target
Liverpool’s search for life after Mohamed Salah is starting to harden into names, numbers and negotiations. One of those names now sits high on the list: Maghnes Akliouche of AS Monaco.
The club’s need is obvious. The goals have started to dry up, the fluency in the final third has dipped, and Arne Slot has spent recent weeks looking down his bench without seeing enough players who can truly change a game. The issues are stacking up at once: Salah is edging towards the exit, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak are wrestling with fitness problems, and Cody Gakpo has never quite found a consistent gear this season.
So Liverpool have turned to the market. And, according to reports in France, their gaze has settled on Akliouche, a 24-year-old right-sided forward whose reputation has quietly grown in Ligue 1.
A Different Kind of Right Winger
Akliouche operates mainly from the right flank but can step inside and play centrally, giving coaches the kind of tactical flexibility modern attacks crave. His output this season is solid and rising: seven goals and 11 assists in 41 appearances across all competitions for Monaco.
Those numbers won’t scare any records, but they do hint at a player who creates as much as he finishes, someone who knits moves together rather than simply waiting for the final touch. For a side about to lose Salah’s relentless end product, that blend of goals and assists carries obvious appeal.
This is not the first time the Premier League has come calling for Akliouche. Tottenham moved for him last summer, only to be turned away. He rejected the North London club and chose a different path, and the deal never moved beyond interest and conversations. One major reason: money.
Monaco’s valuation, believed to be around €70 million, cooled several suitors. Clubs stepped back. Bids never arrived. The price tag hung over the player like a “do not touch” sign.
Liverpool, PSG and a Changing Market
Now the landscape looks different. An exit is firmly on the table. PSG have joined Liverpool in monitoring the France international, and the numbers being discussed this time are more realistic from a buyer’s perspective.
Reports suggest Liverpool could move with an offer in the region of €50 million in the coming weeks. That figure still represents a major outlay, but for a club bracing itself for the loss of Salah, it sits within the realm of possibility.
How serious is that interest? That’s the key question. Slot and Liverpool’s recruitment team have no shortage of options to examine. Bradley Barcola and Yan Diomande are also heavily linked with a move to Anfield as the club reshapes its forward line.
This is not just a straight swap exercise, though. It’s not simply “find the next Salah and plug him in.” The thinking at Liverpool runs deeper: how do you rebalance an entire attack when its defining figure disappears?
Slot’s Blueprint and the Akliouche Question
Slot has already offered a glimpse into that thought process. Speaking earlier this month, he made it clear that any Salah replacement will be chosen with the rest of the squad in mind, and specifically with Isak’s strengths as a reference point.
“[Getting the most from Isak] is definitely part of thinking about the [Salah] replacement,” he said. “Because, since I have been here, and it is the same at a lot of clubs, it is mainly a left footer on the right and a right footer on the left.
“I have seen Alex scoring also a lot from crosses which were played from the right, right-footed, Trent Alexander-Arnold crosses, if you want to call them like that.
“So that is definitely part of how we are looking at things, but we try to sign the best possible available player who we can afford.
“Something else which also happens at certain clubs is: ‘OK, that is the best player in the world in that position, let’s try and get him.’ That is not how we work, we try and sign the best possible player who is available for us.”
Those comments cut to the heart of the Akliouche debate.
On paper, he doesn’t quite match the tactical tweak Slot has floated. The Dutchman spoke about possibly flipping the traditional modern-winger model, using a right-footer on the right to feed Isak’s penalty-box instincts. Akliouche, though, is a left-footer cutting in from that flank – much closer to the Salah template than the new variation Slot hinted at.
So the question is clear: does Liverpool stick to the idea of changing the profile of their right winger, or do they lean back into what has worked for years and try to refine it with a younger, more malleable version?
Akliouche sits right at that crossroads. A left-footed right winger, creative, technically sharp, with enough versatility to move inside. Not the “system shift” signing Slot described, but certainly the kind of player a club can build around.
Liverpool’s recruitment team now has to decide whether he is the one worth bending the plan for.
