Why £120m Bradley Barcola is not a like-for-like Mohamed Salah replacement for Liverpool

Bradley Barcola is reportedly on the verge of completing a move to Liverpool, but the French winger should not be viewed as a direct replacement for Mohamed Salah despite the size of the fee involved.

Liverpool have reached an agreement with Paris Saint-Germain for Barcola in a deal that could rise to around €140m (£120m), with the 23-year-old expected to travel to England to finalise the move and undergo a medical.

The scale of the investment immediately raises expectations. Barcola arrives after a lengthy transfer pursuit and a productive spell in Paris, where he recorded 39 goals and 37 assists in 152 appearances and won major honours as part of one of Europe’s strongest squads. However, his role at Anfield is likely to be very different from the one he occupied at PSG.

Why Barcola offers something different to Salah

Salah spent much of his Liverpool career starting from the right and became the team’s main source of goals, while Barcola is naturally more comfortable operating from the left. That distinction matters.

Barcola’s biggest strength is his ability to attack space at speed. He likes to receive wide, drive directly at defenders and accelerate the game rather than slow possession down. His one-on-one threat and ability to break defensive lines could fit well with Andoni Iraola’s preference for vertical, aggressive attacking football.

He can operate on either flank, but asking him to reproduce Salah’s exact output or positional role would be unrealistic. Liverpool are therefore not simply replacing one right-sided forward with another. They are rebuilding the structure of their attack around a different set of qualities.

Barcola will face greater responsibility at Liverpool

At PSG, Barcola was surrounded by Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue, which meant the attacking burden was shared. At Liverpool, the situation will be different.

The departure of Salah has left Liverpool searching for a new reference point on the right side of their attack, and the size of Barcola’s transfer means he will be expected to assume a central role immediately rather than develop quietly on the fringes. That represents perhaps the biggest challenge of the move.

Barcola has already shown that he can produce at elite level, but he has never previously had to carry the same level of responsibility over an entire season. The Premier League will also demand adaptation to a more physical environment, a heavier schedule and greater week-to-week intensity.

Liverpool had the chance to sign Bradley Barcola for £70m last summer reports Lewis Steele but opted to keep the pathway clear for Rio Ngumoha instead. Now they’ve committed around £120m towards signing him. Costly delay? pic.twitter.com/plu6eudkkF
— Anfield Watch (@AnfieldWatch) August 28, 2026

The fee will only increase the pressure. Liverpool are not paying around £120m for potential alone. They are investing in a player they believe can make an immediate difference and become one of the faces of Iraola’s new-look side.

That does not mean Barcola has to become “the next Salah”. His success may depend on Liverpool accepting precisely the opposite: that he is a different type of forward, one whose pace, directness and ability to attack space can help reshape the attack rather than simply replicate what came before.