Jamie Carragher Warns Liverpool to Prioritize Right Wing Replacement

Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool are looking in the wrong place.

As the club line up a move for Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola, the former Liverpool defender has warned that the first priority must be replacing Mohamed Salah on the right – not adding yet another option to an already crowded left flank.

Barcola, a France international, prefers to attack from the left. Salah, across nine prolific years at Anfield, turned the right wing into his own private stage. For Carragher, that contrast matters.

“He is a wonderful player, there is no doubt about that, and I would love to see Barcola at Liverpool,” Carragher told Sky Sports. “But for me he is a left winger.”

Liverpool are preparing their opening offer for Barcola, with PSG valuing the 21-year-old at around €150 million, according to reports. It is a huge number, and it would be landing on a side already well stocked on that side of the pitch.

Cody Gakpo can operate from the left. So can 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha, who scored in the recent friendly win over Wrexham, and new signing Victor Muñoz. Carragher’s view is blunt: Liverpool are shopping in the wrong aisle.

“The main thing that stands out as an urgent need for Liverpool right now is replacing Salah, who was playing as a right winger,” he said. “And I do not think Liverpool have any player in the squad who feels completely comfortable playing in the right wing position.”

Digging into the depth chart, Carragher underlined just how stacked the left already is.

“The team probably have at least four numbers in the squad before Barcola joins, if he joins, who can play on the left side quite comfortably.”

That is the tension at the heart of this pursuit. Barcola is elite talent, but he walks straight into an area where Liverpool already have numbers – and where one of their brightest prospects is pushing hard.

Ngumoha’s emergence gives the decision an extra edge. He is young, exciting, and needs minutes.

“Rio is a young lad, and he is really excellent, and I think he will keep developing from what he showed last season,” Carragher said. “But this is an important point: you are buying a very young player for a large sum of money in Barcola, and he is currently better than Rio Ngumoha.”

That is the reality. Barcola would arrive as the more polished product. Yet Liverpool also know that elite prospects do not wait forever.

“You expect in the end, over the next year or two, that Rio will want to play week in, week out with Liverpool, and it is up to him to prove that,” Carragher added.

That is where the potential clash lies. A huge investment on a left winger of Barcola’s profile could block Ngumoha’s pathway at precisely the moment he is trying to step through the door.

“So when you pay that kind of money for a young player in his position, it makes you a little uncertain,” Carragher admitted. “There is talk of Rio Ngumoha potentially playing on the right side and getting some minutes there, and as a young player it is a good thing to play on both sides, but I think his current position is the left wing.”

Carragher’s stance is not anti-Barcola. Far from it. He would welcome the Frenchman – but only if Liverpool also confront the vacancy Salah has left and clear space in the squad.

“If you asked me, do I want Barcola to arrive along with Liverpool signing a right winger too? I would be very happy because players would have to leave, and that is of course a natural thing,” he said.

For him, the sequencing of the window matters. First, find the new right-sided spearhead. Then, if the finances and squad balance allow, go big on Barcola and reshape the forward line properly.

“At the moment, I felt that this summer should be dedicated to replacing Salah, and Barcola does not make up for Mo’s departure,” Carragher insisted.

His ideal scenario is ruthless but clear.

“If they go out and bring in a player for the right wing position, and sign Barcola, then sell two of the wide players currently in the team, then I think that would be a wonderful thing.”

Liverpool know what Salah gave them from the right: goals, chaos, inevitability. The question now is whether they can find that again before they indulge in the luxury of another left-sided star.