The October international break hasn’t quite slammed shut, but Liverpool fans are already looking with anticipation toward the return of Premier League action.
Arne Slot’s Premier League champions have been well below their best for most of the campaign, demonstrating much tenacity to find late winners across the opening weeks of the campaign but lacking balance and control.
They could only ride this wave for so long, with the tide turning in recent weeks and the Reds falling in successive top-flight outings, defeat in the Champions League at Galatasaray sandwiched in between.
Many high-profile signings have been made, but Liverpool need to rediscover their swagger and style. With names like Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak added to the fold, welcoming another forward seems ludicrous, but it might be the answer to the Anfield side’s troubles in the long run.
Liverpool need another forward
Sporting director Richard Hughes and the senior figures at Liverpool remain confident that it will all come together. For Liverpool not to return to top-class form at some stage seems ludicrous, given the existing squad’s pedigree, the money spent this summer, and the calibre of signings brought in.
But Mohamed Salah’s form has been one of the big negative talking points this term. The 33-year-old has less than two years remaining on his £400k-per-week deal, and it’s well-known that Liverpool must spend big to secure a replacement.
According to Caught Offside, Hughes has already compiled a list of names he’s eager to pursue as Salah enters the final stretch of his Premier League career, and though talks were held in recent months for Lyon’s Malick Fofana and Bournemouth sensation Antoine Semenyo is being considered, it is Bayern Munich star Michael Olise who must be signed.
The France international is very much on Liverpool’s shortlist, with previous reports this month claiming the Merseysiders are even preparing an offer for the £86m-rated winger.
The 23-year-old joined Bayern from Crystal Palace for £50m in 2024, but Liverpool feel a deal could be struck given their good relationship with the Bundesliga champions.
What Michael Olise would bring to Liverpool
Olise thrived at Crystal Palace, joining from Reading and helping lift them toward their modern peak. Under Oliver Glasner, the Eagles are flying, and the French winger was crucial in getting the system up and running.
But his move to Germany has placed his name on the world atlas.
Last season was one of great success for Olise and his outfit, and he’s carried that form into the new campaign and fashioned something even greater, having notched five goals and six assists from just ten matches in all competitions.
There’s a sense that the best is still to come, and it’s for this reason Liverpool must chase his signature over Semenyo’s, as talented and dangerous as the Bournemouth star may be.
Comparing the two, we can see that Olise is the more clinical player and also the more explosive – though if Semenyo maintains his 2025/26 form across the duration of the year, that one may edge considerably closer.
Goals scored
0.39
0.39
Assists
0.20
0.50
Shots taken
3.07
3.47
Shot-creating actions
3.88
6.56
Touches (att pen)
5.13
6.32
Pass completion (%)
72.7
80.7
Progressive passes
3.832
7.50
Progressive carries
3.88
5.02
Successful take-ons
2.01
2.48
Ball recoveries
4.46
3.81
Semenyo is likely a bit more physical and active throughout the different phases of play, but Salah’s success over the past nine years would tell you that a pick-and-choose approach bears just as many dividends, if not more. And it’s not as if Olise isn’t one of the silkiest and most fleet-footed wingers in the game.
Disregarding the players’ clinical starts to the campaign, their underlying metrics are evidence of their elite athleticism, with Sofascore also showing Olise has created 1.8 chances and won 4.3 duels per game in the German top flight this season, completing 83% of his passes.
Liverpool did manage to bag all three points in a frenzied match against Bournemouth on the opening day of the season, but Semenyo was electric throughout, bagging two special goals.
Make no mistake, Liverpool would not fumble if they were to sign the Ghana international next summer, but Olise is simply a level higher, with podcaster Henry Swain even describing him as “one of the best wingers in the world”.
Moreover, he’s younger than Semenyo, almost two years his junior, and has not yet been modelled into the final shape that could place him in conversations not too dissimilar to those which have followed Salah throughout his Liverpool journey.
The Cherries star, 25, has been in inspired form at the start of the season, it must be said. He has scored six goals and assisted three more in the Premier League this season, and Salah has paled in comparison on Liverpool’s right flank.
Both Olise and Semenyo would fall into similar financial ballparks, and so Liverpool must simply pick which player they believe stands a better chance of replacing the Egyptian King effectively, across many years.
We know he can do it in the Premier League, and the rise in prolific quality since moving to the Allianz Arena has been exciting to witness. Olise is the real deal and would be the perfect profile to ease Salah’s departure when that fateful day comes.
For now, he will continue to develop and improve in the Bundesliga, but it’s hard to imagine Olise being anything other than a triumph if he returned to the Premier League and took a place on Liverpool’s right wing.
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