Steven Gerrard names his dream Mohamed Salah replacement at Liverpool

Gerrard acknowledged the immense difficulty in replacing a player of Salah's stature but expressed confidence in the club's proven track record of evolving the frontline after losing key figures.

Speaking to talkSPORT Breakfast, the former Reds captain explained: "I think the concern, if you’re trying to replace Salah, in terms of like-for-like, I think there are very few out there that you can go and grab. Olise would be one, I would say, but I don’t think he’d be available. But from experience, being around Liverpool as a player, and also since I’ve left, Liverpool’s recruitment team will have different options, and that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll look for a like-for-like.

"When we had to replace [Sadio] Mane, for example, we went for [Luis] Diaz, who’s slightly different, if you like, or when [Luis] Suarez has left, they’ve had different types of options to try and replace the players. But Liverpool have got a fantastic record of replacing top players that have gone before, so I’ve got every confidence from a recruitment point of view that they’ll have different types of options, not necessarily a like-for-like, but one thing is for certain, they have to try and replace some kind of goal involvement in terms of goals and assists, which is extremely difficult, because they’ve been incredible for Liverpool for many years."

Despite the mounting speculation, Bayern officials have been quick to dismiss any suggestion that Olise could be sold after just two seasons in the Bundesliga. The club hierarchy remains adamant that financial gains will not come at the expense of on-field quality as they look to maintain their competitive edge.

Addressing the Liverpool transfer rumours last month, honorary Bayern president Uli Hoeness stated: “If that’s true… I don’t believe it is, but Liverpool spent 500 million euros this year and are having a very bad season. So we won’t be contributing to them playing better next year. We play this game for our fans. We have 430,000 members, we have many millions of fans around the world, and it does them little good if we have 200 million euros in the bank and play worse football every Saturday because of it.”

Sporting director Max Eberl further clarified the situation to Sport Bild, adding: “Michael has a contract with us until 2029, without a release clause - we’re relaxed.”

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