Liverpool's Ambitious Attack Overhaul: Sarr and Minteh Targets
Liverpool are attempting a late, audacious reshaping of their attack, with Ismaila Sarr and Yankuba Minteh both in their sights as the transfer window ticks towards Tuesday night’s deadline.
The club are on the brink of confirming Bradley Barcola’s arrival from Paris Saint-Germain, a marquee deal that will headline their summer. But inside Anfield, the expectation is that Barcola will not be the final new face through the door in the next 36 hours.
The plan is bold. Liverpool want another winger in before the 11pm cut-off tomorrow, a move that would unlock Cody Gakpo’s proposed £85m switch to Manchester City. Gakpo had initially looked bound for Tottenham Hotspur, yet City’s late intervention flipped the script and turned his head towards the Etihad.
All of that hinges on what Liverpool can pull off in wide areas.
Sarr the priority, Minteh the dream
Talks are active with Crystal Palace over Senegal international Ismaila Sarr, with Fabrizio Romano and several leading outlets reporting negotiations between the clubs. GIVEMESPORT senior correspondent Ben Jacobs has gone further, revealing that Sarr is now “pushing” Palace to sanction a move to Anfield.
Liverpool’s preference is clear. Jacobs reports that, while discussions are ongoing for more than one target, Sarr is the name at the top of their list, even with Palace resistant to a sale this late in the window.
Yet the ambition stretches beyond that.
Foot Mercato journalist El-Hadji Loum has claimed on X that Liverpool’s ideal scenario would see them land both Sarr and Brighton’s rising star Yankuba Minteh before the deadline. That’s the dream: Barcola, Sarr, Minteh – three wingers, one window, and a completely retooled front line.
Reality bites when the numbers come in. Loum stresses it will come down to budget, and there is already a warning sign there. Liverpool have had a £60m offer rejected for Minteh, and going back in for the Brighton winger while also pushing to sign Sarr would push the outlay comfortably beyond £100m in the final hours of the window.
That’s the financial tightrope Liverpool are walking.
Fixing a blunt attack
The urgency is easy to understand. Liverpool are coming off a disappointing 2025-26 campaign and have stumbled into the new Premier League season with back-to-back draws against Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest.
The attack no longer carries the same inevitability it once did, especially in the wake of Mohamed Salah’s departure. The cutting edge has dulled. The fear factor has faded.
Barcola’s arrival helps. Adding Sarr and Minteh on top would transform it.
Those three would inject searing pace and relentless, direct running into Andoni Iraola’s side, the kind of profile that stretches defences and drags backlines into uncomfortable territory. It’s the sort of chaos that can open channels for the technicians behind them, creating more room for players such as Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz to operate between the lines and punish the gaps.
Minteh, in particular, has already turned heads this season. Senior sports writer Charlie Parker-Turner highlighted his impact at Brighton, hailing a standout display alongside Kaoru Mitoma and noting how Georginio Rutter’s presence seemed to unlock both wide men. Performances like that explain why Liverpool have tested Brighton’s resolve with serious money.
That explosion of pace on the flanks is exactly what Iraola’s current Liverpool side lack. It is exactly what could turn them from nearly-men into genuine title contenders again.
Now the question is simple, and brutally time-bound: can Liverpool’s budget, and their resolve, stretch far enough in the final hours of the window to deliver the attacking overhaul they clearly crave?
