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Newcastle wanted to sign Hugo Ekitike to play alongside Alexander Isak next season. But Liverpool effectively told their الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز rivals, you can have one, but not both. The Reds could, though.
It’s obviously never wise to try to anticipate what might happen in an increasingly crazy transfer market but, at the time of writing, Liverpool have already had one bid for Isak turned down, having already snapped up Ekitike for an initial £69 million ($91.6m).
Unsurprisingly, Liverpool fans are in dreamland, giddy with the excitement of potentially seeing Isak in the same side as not only Ekitike, but also another new face in Florian Wirtz, the £100m ($133m) signing from Bayer Leverkusen, and living legend Mohamed Salah.
However, while the Premier League champions have already cleared some space in their forward line by selling Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich, if Isak really were to arrive at Anfield, manager Arne Slot would have his work cut out trying to fit all of his top talents into his starting line up…
Newcastle wanted to sign Hugo Ekitike to play alongside Alexander Isak next season. But Liverpool effectively told their Premier League rivals, you can have one, but not both. The Reds could, though.
It’s obviously never wise to try to anticipate what might happen in an increasingly crazy transfer market but, at the time of writing, Liverpool have already had one bid for Isak turned down, having already snapped up Ekitike for an initial £69 million ($91.6m).
Unsurprisingly, Liverpool fans are in dreamland, giddy with the excitement of potentially seeing Isak in the same side as not only Ekitike, but also another new face in Florian Wirtz, the £100m ($133m) signing from Bayer Leverkusen, and living legend Mohamed Salah.
However, while the Premier League champions have already cleared some space in their forward line by selling Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich, if Isak really were to arrive at Anfield, manager Arne Slot would have his work cut out trying to fit all of his top talents into his starting line up…
There was a time when playing two up front was commonplace in English football. There was Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp at Arsenal, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole at Manchester United and even Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips did an awful lot of damage together at Sunderland in the classic ‘big man, small man’ partnership.
Times have changed and the game has evolved, with forward lines more fluid than ever before – as Paris Saint-Germain so effectively illustrated by winning the Champions League with three wingers up front.
However, Liverpool have enjoyed a fair bit of success over the years with dynamic duos (Kevin Keegan u0026amp; John Toshack, Kenny Dalglish u0026amp; Ian Rush, Michael Owen u0026amp; Emile Heskey, Luis Suarez u0026amp; Daniel Sturridge), so might Slot consider adding Ekitike u0026amp; Isak to that illustrious list?
As tall, slender, technically-gifted attackers capable of beating opponents with pace and fast feet, Isak and Ekitike are eerily similar players. Indeed, the presumption was that Newcastle wanted Ekitike to replace Isak – and that Liverpool wanted Ekitike as an alternative to Isak.
However, Eddie Howe clearly felt that the two could play together, and Slot does too. The first half of last season probably illustrates why.
Before Omar Marmoush’s winter-window move from Eintracht Frankfurt to Manchester City, the Egyptian was tearing up the الدوري الألماني thanks in no small part to Ekitike. The pair worked wonderfully well in tandem and were directly involved in a combined 51 goals in all competitions. It’s not hard to imagine Isak also flourishing alongside Ekitike, who excelled as a lone striker following Marmoush’s exit, but openly admits that he loves dropping deeper to pick up possession.
“I mean, I do what the coach asks me to do, but yeah, I like to do everything,” the 23-year-old told Liverpool’s official website. “I can’t define myself only as a striker [who likes] to finish: I like to play, I like to be in the game, in the collective part of play [and] create also.
“So, I can do both – I can play alone and I like to play also with another striker and I think that’s what makes me versatile and you know now in football, you need to adapt.”
Of course, playing two up top would have plenty of knock-on effects. Salah could obviously play more as an orthodox right winger – and the same goes for Cody Gakpo on the opposite flank – while Wirtz could remain in his classic trequartista role just behind Isak and Ekitike. n
However, that would mean seriously overburdening Ryan Gravenberch at the base of the midfield. Consequently, it seems unlikely that we’ll see Isak, Ekitike, Salah, Wirtz and Gakpo on the field at the same time unless Liverpool are chasing a goal in the closing stages of a game against deep-lying opposition.n
Indeed, the only way a front two might work would be to have Salah and Wirtz playing as twin-10s in a ‘box’ midfield – a bit like Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan at Manchester City – with Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister assuming nearly all of the responsibility for protecting the defence, and the very attack-minded full-backs Milos Kerkez and Jermie Frimpong charged with providing the width.
Right now, it seems much more probable that Slot will continue with his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation – just with minor tactical tweaks but perhaps greater rotation.
One could easily envisage Ekitike excelling on the left-hand side of a narrow front three, given his propensity for drifting wide anyway. Just like Gakpo, who initially played primarily through the middle after his arrival from PSV, and indeed Isak, Ekitike is a very modern and mobile forward who loves cutting inside onto his favoured right foot, and could regularly interchange with Isak, who is also very comfortable running the channels.
If we know nothing else about Liverpool’s data-obsessed recruitment team, it’s that they love multi-functional forwards who press well – and Slot certainly couldn’t complain about a lack of attractive options in attack if Isak were to join. The challenge, of course, will be keeping everyone happy.
Diaz will undoubtedly be missed. He racked up 17 goals in all competitions last season – the most prolific campaign of his Anfield career – and was undeniably the best dribbler at the club, although based on what we saw from Rio Ngumoha in pre-season, maybe that was no longer the case! Indeed, the 16-year-old’s emergence as a genuine first-team option means Liverpool have a plethora of exciting options on the left wing, where Gakpo really came into his own last term.
Of course, given there’s a distinct possibility that both Federico Chiesa and Harvey Elliott could leave before the transfer window closes, Slot could be short on cover for Salah on the right flank – but then, Frimpong essentially operates as a winger when he’s playing at full-back, so it would not be a surprise to see the flying Dutchman occasionally utilised further forward.
With Darwin Nunez still expected to leave despite the collapse of his proposed move to Napoli, a Liverpool squad still coming to terms with the tragic loss of Diogo Jota might be light on options through the middle, which is why the interest in Isak actually makes sense – despite his similarities to the already expensively acquired Ekitike.
However, signing a guaranteed starter such as the Swede would undoubtedly reduce the Frenchman’s opportunities to lead the line – but that might not be a bad thing, as it would give him time to get to grips with the Premier League, while at the same time alleviating the pressure on his shoulders to immediately solve Liverpool’s striking problem. At Anfield, Ekitike is very much seen as a young player who is going to improve exponentially in the coming years and end up worth a lot more than the Reds paid for him.
It would undoubtedly seem strange to outsiders to see such a costly signing coming in and out of the starting line up, but Slot will undoubtedly want to rotate more regularly this season anyway, given so many of his favourites were affected by fatigue during the second half of 2024-25 – most notably during the week in which they were knocked out of the Champions League by PSG and upset by Isak’s Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final.
Indeed, it was clear during that latter defeat at Wembley that Liverpool were missing a prolific No.9. With Isak and Ekitike on board, Slot would suddenly have two, creating the kind of welcome selection headache that Howe so desperately wanted.
