Ex-Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy has explained why he thinks his former side opted against signing a natural replacement for Mohamed Salah in the summer.
Liverpool have been criticised for their transfer activity in this summer’s window, with the Premier League giants only recruiting Bradley Barcola, Victor Munoz, Ronald Araujo and Jeremy Jacquet.
Their priority in the summer was to overhaul their wing department following Salah’s exit on a free transfer, though they did not sign a direct top-level replacement for the club legend.
Barcola was their marquee signing, but he is a natural left-winger, while Munoz is proving more of a squad player.
Because of this, Cody Gakpo and Rio Ngumoha have been tested on the right, and Murphy has argued that they did not sign another right-winger because they failed to sign two leading targets and then did not want to sign the wrong player as an alternative.
“I think there were a lot of rumours around trying to get Minteh and Sarr in, who are obviously more right-sided players, so they’re obviously aware of it,” Murphy said in an interview for GOAL.
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“But I think, as a football club, there’s something to be said for not buying somebody or getting somebody just to fill. If you’ve already got talented, intelligent footballers there, who can play that side – because I’ve seen Barcola play off the right, I think Gakpo’s got the intelligence to do it, I think he’ll score goals from there. He got a great assist from there, actually, I think in the Forest game from the right side.
“So they probably looked at what they already had when they couldn’t get Sarr or Minteh and thought, ‘you know what, let’s not rush and get someone in who doesn’t quite fit the criteria’. So I understand it.
“You don’t always get what you want in a window. You can’t be held to ransom and pay over the odds for players just because you desperately need them, because they’ve spent a lot of money.
“So in an ideal world you’d want a more orthodox right-sided player, I agree with that, but ultimately do I think they’ve got enough for now in Munoz, who’s shown glimpses on that side, and Gakpo can play that side and even Barcola? I think they’ve got enough.”
READ MORE: Florian Wirtz is ‘nothing’ and Liverpool aren’t much more because of him
“He doesn’t look like he belongs…”
Liverpool earned a narrow 1-0 win against AFC Bournemouth on Sunday, but several of their underperforming players are under scrutiny.
This includes £116m star Florian Wirtz, and pundit Troy Deeney has explained why he does not think the midfielder “belongs in this league”.
“He just doesn’t look like he belongs in this league. What I mean by that is, he’s clearly talented; clearly he’s got the technical ability,” Deeney said on talkSPORT.
“But it’s like he doesn’t believe he’s going to score and doesn’t believe he’s going to impact the game. Liverpool need more from him.”
He continued: “The rest of the team are starting to disbelieve because every time it goes to him, the tempo slows down.
“And when they get back, it slows the whole thing down. Iraola just in front of us was absolutely blowing his top.”
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