Arne Slot has admitted that finding a single player to replace Mohamed Salah is "probably impossible" and that Liverpool will instead turn to last summer's recruits to step up when he leaves. Salah will walk away from Liverpool after nine years this summer, leaving a huge hole that needs filling.

The 33-year-old forward recently announced he will leave at the end of the season, having won two Premier League titles and the Champions League, among many other honours. He has scored 255 goals for the club - the third most of any player - and will go down in the club's history as one of their best ever players.

Even in a difficult campaign, Salah has contributed 10 goals and nine assists in 34 appearances across all competitions this season. And Liverpool fans will miss his trademark of cutting inside from the right wing to curl into the net with his left foot.

Liverpool spent £320million on attacking reinforcements last summer, in the form of Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak, and Slot says the bulk of the responsibility for replacing Salah's output will fall on their shoulders.

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"Of course we do," Slot said on Friday when asked if Liverpool had a plan for replacing Salah. "We are not starting to work on it now because we are constantly working on where we can improve. There is not a lot talked about this but it is 88 minutes that Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz were together on the pitch together.

"So let’s first find out and work out how that works together and that can give us so much more. It is never one player who can replace Mo. Otherwise there would be 15 or 20 Mo’s and he is one of a kind, which is why he is so special.

"You cannot find a Mo replacement. Maybe you can but he would not be available. Yes I am [involved in summer planning]. I know why you ask this question."

While getting the best out of last summer's recruits is a priority, Slot also feels that the role of the Premier League winger has also changed so much that players in Salah's mould will become rarer and rarer.

He added: "How the league has changed is maybe not so much to do with the winger position that we need to recruit. But we are aware that football has changed in England. We will always try to have our own style, but we cannot shut our eyes for the new reality and that is that it's not only low blocks, it's also set-piece after set-piece after set-piece.

"One of the reasons why we haven't been successful in the first half of the season was mainly set-pieces. Yes, I'm fully involved in next season and we have these discussions as well. How can we unlock a low block? Now, the England manager (Thomas Tuchel) has an opinion about that.

"Wingers are very important to unlock a load block, as we noticed last season with Mo and Luis Diaz. But there are more things that you have to be aware of like set-piece, defending all these long throw-ins and all these pieces that teams do.

"Maybe having someone that has a long throw-in because when we had this with Joe Gomez we immediately scored against Nottingham Forest. So you try to make the team as best as possible, and that's why replacing Mo on a one-on-one is probably impossible.

"So we have to find a way of making it work that the team is stronger but it would already make our team much stronger if we've got Alex, Hugo and Florian together available for a bit more than 88 minutes this year."

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