Replacing Mohamed Salah at Liverpool near impossible – Gerrard

Steven Gerrard has acknowledged the scale of the challenge facing Liverpool as they prepare for life after Mohamed Salah, warning that a direct replacement for the club’s talisman is almost non-existent in today’s market.

Salah confirmed recently that he will depart Anfield at the end of the season, drawing the curtain on a glittering spell that has cemented his legacy among Liverpool’s all-time greats.

With the Egyptian widely expected to pursue a move to the Saudi Pro League, attention has already shifted to how the club will fill the enormous void left by his goals, creativity and consistency.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Gerrard admitted that finding a like-for-like successor would be unrealistic, stressing that elite forwards with Salah’s output are exceptionally rare.

“The concern if you’re trying to Salah, like-for-like, there’s very few out there,” Gerrard continued. “Olise would be one, but I don’t think he’d be available.

“From experience, being around Liverpool, the recruitment team will have different options, that doesn’t necessarily mean like-for-like.

“When we had to replace Mane for example, we went for signed Diaz who was slightly different, when Suarez or Torres has left, they’ve had different type of options to replace the players.

“Liverpool have a fantastic record of replacing top players so I’ve got every confidence from a recruitment point of view that they’ll have different options. They’ll have to replace his goal involvements which is extremely difficult because he’s been incredible for Liverpool for many years.”