Carragher draws up Liverpool transfer plan to help replace Mohamed Salah

Jamie Carragher has praised Mohamed Salah's consistency as Liverpool prepare for life without one of their greatest ever players following his announcement that he will leave at the end of the season

Jamie Carragher identified Mohamed Salah's durability as his greatest attribute as the Liverpool legend looked back on the career of "one of the greatest players to have played for the club".

And Carragher, who made 737 appearances for the Reds, told the ECHO that Liverpool may need to consider a different type of player in the hunt for Salah's replacement.

Salah, who is the club's third highest scorer of all time with 255 goals, revealed last month that this campaign would be his last at Anfield, having joined from Roma for around £36million in the summer of 2017.

The Egypt skipper has enjoyed a fairytale spell on Merseyside, securing two Premier League titles and the Champions League along with two Carabao Cups, the FA Cup in 2022 and a maiden Club World Cup for the Reds in December 2019.

Salah has featured in 436 of the 496 Liverpool fixtures since his arrival and turned out 323 times from a potential 335 in the Premier League.

Carragher, who lifted the Champions League in 2005, says Salah's scoring record speaks for itself but praised the forward's capacity to make himself regularly available for the side as one of his key strengths.

"It was interesting listening to Jurgen Klopp speaking about him the other day and he give a little insight into how Mo was probably thinking when he joined the club," Carragher told the ECHO. "He was actually asking where would he play?

"He was worried about Sadio Mane playing on the right where would he play and it just shows where he has gone from that. He has come in and not 100 per cent sure he will play in the team.

"But I remember his debut at Watford, I was at that game, he definitely scored, and I could just see straight away he was going to get goals because of the runs he was making, he so was electric. But no-one would have envisaged what he would go on to become for Liverpool

"And, you know, one of the greatest players to play for the club; one of the greatest players in the world now for how long has he been at Liverpool? Nine seasons. And it is his consistency, I think, and the thing I love is he plays every week.

"That is something I pride myself on. I look back on my own career and I am proud of that. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck with injuries but the thing I love about him is he plays every game, he wants to play every game, he wants to break records.

"He's got that mentality, I can assure you, having been at Liverpool for so long, not every player has got that. Some players like having a few good games and then they won't to come out and have a breather and almost rest on their three or four great games they have had.

"And when they are out of the team, someone will say: 'Oh we miss him now.' Because when you play every week, you're there to be shot at, you're there to have a bad game or in Salah's chance miss a chance, whatever it may be.

"And that is the biggest thing for me, not his quality but the fact that he is there for Liverpool every week."

Focus now shifts to how Liverpool set about identifying a player who can fill the void on the right flank but Carragher doesn't reckon any player is genuinely 'irreplaceable' at Anfield.

The former centre-half, who was part of the Gerard Houllier squad that secured the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup 25 years ago, reckons the decision-makers at recruitment level may look to bring in a different style of winger.

Carragher added: "I never go along with it when someone says they are irreplaceable. Go through the players we've had over the years at this football club and for me, whether you think he is a right-winger or not, he is a goalscorer, that is what he is.

"And a few years before Mo Salah, we had Luis Suarez. You know, Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, you go back on the list and I am not saying it will be easy to replace him, of course, but you might get a different type of right-winger, someone who is creating for the central strikers.

"So I don't think he is irreplaceable and I don't think it is the case either that Liverpool need to go and sign a superstar as such. Mo Salah wasn't a superstar when we signed him. He come and wasn't sure he was going to play.

"We bought superstars last summer, didn't we? And it hasn't quite worked out as of yet. Buy the right player for the right reasons, that is what Liverpool need to get back to."