Liverpool’s £300m Gamble: Isak's Revival and Ekitike's Injury
The summer of 2025 felt like a statement, not a rebuild. Liverpool had just climbed back to the top of English football, Premier League champions again, and instead of consolidating quietly, they went for the jugular in the transfer market.
Florian Wirtz arrived for £116m. Hugo Ekitike for £69m. Alexander Isak, prised from St James’ Park, became the most expensive player in British football. The message was clear: the champions wanted to stay champions, and they were willing to pay heavily to do it.
Reality has been far less glamorous.
Big Fees, Bigger Frustrations
Wirtz, the German playmaker brought in to sprinkle stardust between the lines, never quite grabbed the rhythm of English football. The flashes were there, but the sustained influence Liverpool expected for that kind of fee never really materialised.
Ekitike’s story turned cruel. An Achilles injury in April ripped away his chance to properly stake a claim. He is not expected back until around the turn of the year.
Isak’s first chapter at Anfield has been even more complicated. He missed pre-season, then suffered a broken leg. For a record signing, four goals across all competitions was a stark, unforgiving return. The price tag weighed heavy. So did the questions.
By the start of the 2026-27 season, the scrutiny had hardened. A 26-year-old centre-forward at the peak of his career, leading the line for Liverpool, yet still trying to convince people he belonged at the very top.
Then the goals started to come.
Three in his last two Premier League games. A different energy in his movement. A sharper edge in the box. The lost spark that had flickered uncertainly through his first months at Anfield suddenly looked alive again.
For now, Andoni Iraola no longer has to agonise over who should wear the No. 9 in this team. Isak has taken that decision back into his own hands.
Ekitike’s Injury and the “What If” Question
Ekitike’s long absence has created an unavoidable debate: has Isak actually benefited from the lack of competition while he searched for form?
Jermaine Pennant doesn’t see it that way. Speaking to GOAL in association with NetBet Casino, the former Liverpool winger rejected the idea that Isak has simply been lucky.
“I wouldn't say fortunate because I think they would have found a way maybe to play them both,” Pennant said.
He pointed to timing. Ekitike went down injured. Cody Gakpo’s form dipped. A window opened tactically that never got used.
“We know that Ekitike likes to drift out to the left,” Pennant explained. “So it wouldn't have surprised me if at some point Isak would have started down the middle, Ekitike may have gone on to the left-hand side and come in on his right foot like Gakpo does and sometimes join up as two number nines.
“But they are two good players, great players and you can't have a player like that sitting on your bench. They would have made a way, I think, for them both to play at some point.”
It’s a tantalising picture: Isak occupying centre-backs, Ekitike attacking from the left, both converging into the box. Instead, Liverpool have lived in a world of hypotheticals, waiting for one to get fit and the other to fully catch fire.
Pressure From the Past – and the Stands
The pressure on Isak has never just been about numbers. It’s been about what his signing represents.
Robbie Fowler, still “God” to the red half of Merseyside, voiced his concern before this season even kicked off. Speaking to GOAL, he admitted he worried about Isak’s ability to stay fit and live up to the expectation that comes with being the most expensive player in British football.
He didn’t dress it up.
Asked if Isak had to come good this term to quieten talk of more reinforcements, Fowler replied: “Absolutely. And that's the case with the managers as well. The manager [Arne Slot] obviously didn’t deliver in the second year, so people questioned that. And as we all know, if people start questioning things, then there’s only one way you go.”
The comparison was pointed. Just as managers live or die on results, so do marquee signings on goals. Isak’s revival in the league – scoring against Nottingham Forest and Ipswich – has steadied the conversation, but not silenced it.
His blank in Liverpool’s opening Champions League fixture of 2026-27, a 2-1 comeback win over Atletico Madrid at Anfield, served as a reminder that this is still a work in progress. The team found a way. Their No. 9 did not.
Barcola, the Next Expensive Problem
As if the forward line needed more intrigue, Liverpool have now gone back into the market and spent big again.
France international Bradley Barcola has arrived for £123m, another huge outlay, another attacking talent to squeeze into an already crowded front line. He brings pace, directness, and the kind of one-v-one threat that forces managers to redraw their plans.
He also brings a new kind of pressure.
When Ekitike returns, Iraola could find himself with Isak, Ekitike, Barcola, Gakpo and Wirtz all competing for the most influential attacking roles. That’s not a rotation policy. That’s a selection storm.
For now, Isak has the shirt and the goals to justify it. He has survived the early doubts, the injuries, the whispers about his fee. But Liverpool have not spent this kind of money to stand still.
At some point soon, Ekitike will be back. Barcola will expect to start. The questions Fowler raised will resurface if the goals dry up.
Liverpool’s lavish gamble in 2025 was supposed to cement an era. The next few months will decide whether it becomes a triumph of ambition – or an expensive search for the right combination in a frontline that refuses to settle.
