With Mohamed Salah's future uncertain, history shows Liverpool have replaced nearly all of their great strikers

With Mohamed Salah's Anfield future in doubt, history shows no-one is bigger than Liverpool.

A look at their past records shows that they have successfully replaced nearly every great goalscorer they had. Go back to the late 1960s and early 1970s and Bill Shankly dismantled his first great side and moved on Kop legends Ian St John and Roger Hunt.

He brought in Kevin Keegan in 1971 and the England striker enjoyed six golden years at Liverpool before he departed for SV Hamburg after helping them lift their first European Cup. Keegan told Liverpool months earlier he did not want to sign a new deal because he wanted to move abroad and the club replaced him with Kenny Dalglish in 1977.

Dalglish helped Liverpool scale even greater heights under Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan before handing over to goalmachine Ian Rush in the early 1980s. The pair played together in one of Liverpool’s great striking partnerships and Rush would set off the instant Dalglish received the ball because he knew he would always find him.

As Rush wound down in the early 1990s, Liverpool found a new goalscoring hero in Robbie Fowler, who exploded onto the scene in 1993, scoring five goals against Fulham aged 18. Fowler does not get the credit he deserves and he scored at least 30 goals in his first three full seasons as he broke record after record.

He was never the same when he suffered an anterior cruciate ligament in 1998 and when he returned, Liverpool had a new, young goalscoring hero in Michael Owen. Gerard Houllier did not like Fowler and gradually undermined him in the eyes of his adoring fans, who nicknamed him God, forcing his sale to Leeds in 2001.

By then, Owen was at his peak for Liverpool, starring in the 2001 FA Cup Final as he scored twice. He helped Liverpool win a treble of League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup and scooped the Ballon d’Or that year.

Houllier loved Owen, but when the Frenchman was sacked in 2004, the incoming Rafa Benitez did not share his affection. Owen was stalling on signing a new deal when Real Madrid came in for him, Benitez sanctioned his sale.

Liverpool struggled to replace Owen’s goals and Benitez did not like Houllier’s last signing, Djibril Cisse, but the Reds still managed to win the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup the following year. Benitez got the striker he craved when Liverpool made Fernando Torres their record £20million signing in 2007.

The Spaniard almost carried them to the title in 2009 before Benitez was sacked in 2010 and his goals dried up. Liverpool sold Torres to Chelsea for a club record £50million in 2011 and spent the money on Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. Carroll was a £35million flop, but Suarez was a huge success, almost carrying Liverpool to the title in 2014.

He went in 2015 when Barcelona came calling after scoring 82 goals in 133 appearances and initially Liverpool struggled to replace him. That changed in 2016 when they signed Sadio Mane and a year later when Salah arrived.

Jurgen Klopp deployed them with Roberto Firmino in one of Liverpool’s most-fabled attacks and they carried the Reds to the Champions League in 2019 and the title the following year.