The summer of 2025 felt like a statement. Liverpool, freshly crowned Premier League champions, didn’t just tweak a title-winning squad – they detonated the transfer market.
Florian Wirtz arrived for £116m. Hugo Ekitike followed for £69m. Then came the headline act: Alexander Isak, prised from St James’ Park to Anfield as the most expensive player in British football history.
It was supposed to be the next great Liverpool front line. It hasn’t played out that cleanly.
A record fee, a broken leg, and a flicker of form
Isak’s first year never really started. He missed pre-season, then suffered a broken leg. The rhythm that defines elite strikers deserted him, and the numbers told the story: just four goals in all competitions.
For a £100m-plus centre-forward in a Liverpool shirt, that return invites scrutiny.
The questions rolled into 2026-27. At 26, this should be his peak. Instead, he opened the new campaign still carrying the weight of that fee, still trying to convince a fanbase that has seen genuine greats lead the line.
Now, at last, there are signs of life. Three goals in his last two Premier League games have changed the noise around him. The movement looks sharper, the finishes more instinctive. Arne Slot’s successor, Iraola, no longer spends every press conference batting away questions about who should start up front. For the first time in a long time, Isak looks like a man playing his way into rhythm rather than out of trouble.
He struck against Nottingham Forest. He struck against Ipswich. He didn’t find the net in Liverpool’s Champions League opener – a 2-1 comeback win over Atletico Madrid at Anfield – but he led the line with more authority. It feels, tentatively, like a spark has been relit.
Ekitike, Gakpo and the competition that never came
Hugo Ekitike was meant to be part of the solution. Instead, his own body betrayed him. An Achilles injury in April pushed his return date back towards the turn of the year and removed what should have been fierce, daily competition for that central role.
So has Isak been lucky? Protected, even, by the lack of genuine pressure on his place 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 dismissed the idea that Isak has simply benefitted from Ekitike’s absence.
“I wouldn't say fortunate because I think they would have found a way maybe to play them both,” Pennant said.
The timing mattered. Ekitike went down injured just as Cody Gakpo’s form dipped. That opened up a tactical avenue that never quite materialised.
“We know that Ekitike likes to drift out to the left, 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,” Pennant added.
That picture – Isak through the middle, Ekitike ghosting in from the left, the pair occasionally operating as twin No.9s – is exactly the sort of attacking puzzle Liverpool thought they were buying.
“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.”
That “some point” now hangs over the second half of the season. When Ekitike returns, the luxury of patience for Isak disappears.
Robbie Fowler’s warning shot
Inside Anfield, nobody is blind to the stakes. Outside, the scrutiny comes with familiar authority.
Robbie Fowler, still known as ‘God’ to the red half of Merseyside, voiced his concern before a ball was kicked this season. Speaking to GOAL, the club legend made it clear that this campaign is make-or-break for Isak’s standing.
Asked if the Swede must finally deliver to quieten calls for yet more attacking reinforcements, Fowler didn’t hesitate.
“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 is stark. Managers live under constant review at a club like Liverpool. Big-money strikers do too.
Isak’s recent goals have bought him time, not immunity.
Barcola and the next selection storm
As if the forward line wasn’t crowded enough, Liverpool doubled down.
France international Bradley Barcola has arrived for £123m, another enormous swing in the market and another elite attacker for Iraola to fit into an already loaded front line. The fee alone guarantees opportunity. The talent will demand even more.
Barcola brings pace, direct running and a threat from wide areas that can stretch defences and open central lanes. For Isak, that could be a gift – or a warning. Service should improve. So will the competition for minutes if Iraola reshapes his system to cram in as many match-winners as possible.
Right now, the picture is relatively clear. Ekitike is still out. Gakpo is searching for top form. Isak is scoring again. The shirt is his.
But this is Liverpool in the post-title, post-spending-spree era. There is no hiding place, not for record signings, not for managers, not for anyone.
When Ekitike steps back onto the training pitch and Barcola finds his stride, Iraola will have the kind of selection headache every elite coach claims to crave and secretly dreads.
By then, we’ll know whether Alexander Isak has turned a corner – or whether that British-record price tag will drag Liverpool back into the market all over again.
