Liverpool’s £300m investment: Isak’s revival and Ekitike’s return
Liverpool did not just refresh in the summer of 2025. They detonated the market.
Florian Wirtz arrived for £116m, Hugo Ekitike for £69m, and Alexander Isak walked through the Shankly Gates as the most expensive player in the history of British football. A title-winning squad had been gilded with elite talent. On paper, it looked ruthless. On grass, it quickly became complicated.
Wirtz, the German playmaker meant to thread everything together, never quite imposed himself. Ekitike’s season cracked in April with an Achilles injury. Isak’s year never really got started: he missed pre-season, then broke his leg, and limped to just four goals in all competitions.
For a £100m-plus centre-forward at Anfield, that is not a slow burn. It is a red flare.
From scrutiny to spark
The questions did not ease up when 2026-27 kicked off. Isak, 26 and carrying the weight of his fee and his fitness record, opened the campaign under a microscope. The scrutiny was intense, the patience thin.
Now, finally, there is a flicker of the striker Liverpool thought they were buying. Three goals in his last two Premier League games have shifted the mood. The movement looks sharper, the finishes more instinctive, the body language less burdened.
A spark, at least, has been rediscovered.
That suits Andoni Iraola just fine. For the first time in a long time, Liverpool’s head coach is not fielding weekly questions about who should lead his line. Isak has the shirt. More importantly, he has started to justify it.
Ekitike’s shadow and Pennant’s verdict
Yet the story up front is about to get crowded again. Ekitike is expected back around the turn of the year, and with his return comes an obvious debate: has Isak benefited from a lack of genuine competition while he searched for form?
Jermaine Pennant does not buy that.
Speaking to GOAL in association with NetBet Casino, the former Liverpool winger pushed back at 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 the timing. Ekitike’s injury, Cody Gakpo’s struggles, and the Frenchman’s natural tendency to drift left all shape the picture.
“The timing of Ekitike's injury, [Cody] Gakpo wasn't performing well. 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.
“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.”
In other words, competition was coming for Isak regardless. Injury just delayed the collision.
Fowler’s warning and a manager under the same glare
The pressure on Isak is not just about minutes. It is about what comes next for Liverpool in the market.
Robbie Fowler, the man still hailed as ‘God’ on the Kop, made that point bluntly before the season began. Speaking to GOAL, he admitted he was worried about Isak’s ability to stay fit and deliver the numbers that come with his price tag.
“Absolutely. And that's the case with the managers as well,” Fowler said. “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 message is stark. At a club like Liverpool, doubt is not a pause. It is a slide. Players and managers live under the same unforgiving light.
Goals, blanks and the European stage
Isak has at least started to answer domestically. He found the net against Nottingham Forest and Ipswich, the kind of fixtures where a Liverpool No.9 is expected to feast. Those goals matter, not just for the points but for the rhythm of a striker who has spent too long in rehab rooms and on treatment tables.
Europe, though, reminded him the job is far from done.
In Liverpool’s opening Champions League game of 2026-27, Isak drew a blank as Iraola’s side had to come from behind to beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 at Anfield. The team found a way. Their record signing did not.
For a forward of his standing, those are the nights that define reputations. The Premier League can build confidence. The Champions League sets the ceiling.
Barcola, selection chaos and the next phase
As if Iraola’s attacking puzzle was not complex enough, Liverpool have thrown another huge piece onto the table.
France international Bradley Barcola has arrived for £123m, a winger with pace, flair and the kind of price tag that demands prominence, not patience. He adds a new angle to an already crowded frontline and another layer to the selection headache that is coming for Iraola.
Once Ekitike is fit, Liverpool could have Isak, Ekitike, Barcola, Gakpo and Wirtz all jostling for the same attacking spaces. That is not a rotation. That is a knife-edge.
For now, Isak has a clear lane and a short run of form to cling to. The goals against Forest and Ipswich, the renewed sharpness, the sense that his Liverpool story might finally be lifting off – all of it arrives just in time.
Because when Ekitike returns and Barcola settles, sentiment will not save anyone. Only numbers will.
