Liverpool: Why Alexander Isak & Florian Wirtz must step up after Mohamed Salah’s exit

No player has scored more goals on the first matchday of a Premier League season than Mohamed Salah for Liverpool.

But when the Reds begin their 2026-27 campaign under Andoni Iraola at Newcastle on Sunday (kick-off 16:30 BST) , Salah will be playing for Trabzonspor against Istanbul Basaksehir in the Turkish Super Lig, some 2,100 miles away.

It will be the first time since 2015 that Liverpool will start a season without any of Salah, Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino in their squad.

Between 2015 and 2026, that trio scored a combined 488 goals (Salah 257, Mane 120, Firmino 111) for the Reds.

Salah netted 10 of those goals on the opening matchday – a Premier League record.

With the Egypt superstar out of the picture, the top scorer in Liverpool’s current squad is Cody Gakpo with just 50 Reds goals.

When Liverpool signed Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike for a combined £320m last summer, the future was very much in mind.

It is impossible for one player to replicate Salah’s achievements, with his goalscoring and creative burden needing to be shared.

Ekitike, 24, had an impressive start to life at Anfield before rupturing his Achilles tendon in April, and the hope is he will be fit for the second half of this season.

And both Isak, 26, and Wirtz, 23, will be expected to lead the way in this new Liverpool era after disappointing debut campaigns.

When it was confirmed in March Salah would leave this summer, Liverpool were expected to make another statement signing – but with the season about to begin they are yet to do so.

“We need a squad that is able to compete on all four fronts, that’s the only way to try to be successful,” captain Virgil van Dijk said this week.

“Let’s see what the last couple weeks of the transfer window brings and then let’s go for it.”