€140m and counting zeroes! Barcola yet to score or assist for Liverpool

It is the most uncomfortable statistic at Anfield right now. Bradley Barcola, the winger Liverpool pursued all summer and finally landed for a package worth up to €140 million, has now played nine matches for the club in all competitions without registering a single goal or a single assist.

Details: The 24-year-old joined from Paris Saint-Germain on deadline day in a deal structured at £100 million guaranteed plus add-ons that can take the total to around €140 million, making him the second most expensive signing in Liverpool's history behind only Alexander Isak. Barcola arrived with a glittering pedigree, having won back-to-back Champions League titles with PSG, even if he was used mostly as an impact substitute behind Désiré Doué, and he scored three goals for France at the World Cup this summer. His start in England has been stop-start: he was rushed into the XI without a proper pre-season, lasted just over an hour on his Champions League debut against Atletico Madrid before going off with cramp, and has so far managed only 170 minutes in the Premier League across three appearances. His output numbers paint a bleak picture: 0 goals, 0 assists, 0.25 expected goals from just two shots, and an average rating of 6.56.

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Context makes the drought harder to excuse. Liverpool signed Barcola as a cornerstone of their post-Salah rebuild, in a window that pushed the club's total spend since the end of the 2024/25 season beyond £663 million, and Andoni Iraola openly admitted he was accelerating the Frenchman's integration. The competition for places, however, is brutal: Cody Gakpo, Florian Wirtz, Víctor Muñoz and Isak all demand minutes in the same attacking unit, while Hugo Ekitike, the €90 million striker, is still recovering from an Achilles rupture and is only targeting a December return. Iraola's staff have been carefully managing Barcola's workload, but patience at Anfield is rarely infinite for nine-figure signings.

It's worth noting that Liverpool's hierarchy may already be hedging their bets on the wide positions. The club are lining up January moves for Brentford's Kevin Schade and have just launched a record-breaking $50 million bid for Tijuana's 17-year-old Mexican prodigy Gilberto Mora, moves that would add even more competition to the flanks Barcola was supposed to own. With Mohamed Salah gone to Trabzonspor, the burden of replacing a legend sits squarely on the Frenchman's shoulders, and at 24 years of age he still has time, but the clock on a €140 million investment is ticking louder with every goalless outing.

Reminder: Record-breaking bid! Liverpool launch $50m assault for Mexico's teenage sensation.