A Liverpool attack of Isak, Ekitike, Salah and Wirtz sounds amazing. But could it work?

New York Times

5 days ago

The latest reboot of Marvel's Fantastic Four hit the cinemas last month and Liverpool's recruitment department, headed by Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes, seem to be taking inspiration from it.
Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike have both arrived from the Bundesliga at a combined cost of around £200million ($265m) to add new dimensions to Liverpool's attack, with Mohamed Salah's extension, signed towards the end of last season, ensuring he will remain as the team's talisman for another two years.
Advertisement
Yet their business does not seem to be done. Newcastle United's Alexander Isak remains a primary target, with The Athletic revealing that a formal bid has now been tabled and rejected. The Sweden international has made it clear that he wants to leave this summer.
The idea of Salah, Wirtz, Ekitike and Isak in the same team is enough to have Liverpool fans drooling and will strike fear into opponents, but it is not a natural front four as it consists of, nominally, a No 10 (Wirtz), a right-winger (Salah) and two No 9s (Isak and Ekitike).
So while it may look electric on paper, can those four actually play together?
There is no doubt that each player has enough talent to thrive at Anfield. Only Ekitike can be considered a project, rather than a ready-made elite talent, even if Wirtz, 22, is younger than the 23-year-old Frenchman.
Since arriving in 2017, Salah has shown that he can thrive with whoever lines up next to him in the front three. From Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane to Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo, the Egypt international has continued to score goals and provide for others.
Coming off his best season in a Liverpool shirt, the 33-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down and he should benefit from Wirtz's creativity behind him and linking up with a No 9 who has far more to their game than just an eye for goal.
Salah may not replicate his numbers from last season, particularly because he will miss a portion of Liverpool's 2025-26 campaign when at the Africa Cup of Nations, but also because goals are likely to be shared more evenly with a prolific central striker next to him.
Wirtz's quality is undeniable. It appears that no matter where he is positioned on the pitch, he will create.
He has already shown a natural ability to drift into pockets of space, pick up possession and deliver precise passes to create goalscoring opportunities for his team-mates.
Advertisement
In the 5-0 friendly victory against Stoke City, he burst into space between midfield and defence before sliding a ball into Dominik Szoboszlai. A sliding challenge prevented him from shooting, but the ball fell for Darwin Nunez to finish. Either Ekitike or Isak would surely relish the prospect of such service.
He also set up 16-year-old winger Rio Ngumoha, this time by slowing the game down and dictating the tempo. He lulled the Stoke defence into backing off after a one-two with Curtis Jones, before he slipped the ball to Ngumoha.
Wirtz maintained his levels against Milan in Hong Kong, even as Liverpool lost 4-2. Here, a similar move as in the first example almost set up Harvey Elliott. The additional mobility of Isak or Ekitike in that scenario would probably have delivered a more positive result.
Wirtz has taken no time to form a relationship with Salah. The pair have been filmed talking and laughing together in pre-season and that bond has already been shown on the pitch. In this example, they enjoyed passing to each other slightly too much.
A front four involving three of Isak, Ekitike, Salah and Wirtz, plus Cody Gakpo on the left, feels like the correct balance for Arne Slot.
The issue is who would play out of Isak and Ekitike. If the Swede does sign, for what would likely be a British record transfer fee of £120m or more, then surely he will be first choice.
While Isak was used on the left when playing alongside Callum Wilson at Newcastle, his impact there was incomparable to when he led the line. It feels implausible that Liverpool would spend so much money on Isak, only to play him out of position.
That is why the most important piece of the jigsaw puzzle could be Ekitike. Liverpool have not spent an initial £69m just so they can boast one of football's most expensive reserves.
Advertisement
His versatility to operate as a lone No 9, in a strike partnership or on the left wing was part of the attraction during the scouting process and should Isak be added, he will drop to second in the centre-forward pecking order.
Ekitike's skill set — a graceful ball-carrier who likes to drift into the left channel and create for others — suggests he could operate from the left. It should not be forgotten that Liverpool's wingers were their primary goalscoring threats last season.
However, there is very little evidence to support the idea Ekitike would be comfortable starting on the left. According to transfermarkt, he has played only four senior games as a left-winger during his career, and none since 2021.
Isak's fitness record could be a factor. When Newcastle were last in the Champions League, the 2023-24 campaign, he managed 40 games but missed spells with groin injuries. Of his 78 Premier League starts, he was substituted in 43 of them.
Ekitike would, therefore, be getting frequent minutes — even if it wouldn't be as many as hoped — while he adapts to the Premier League.
Slot showed in the first half of last season with his treatment of Gakpo and Diaz (left wing), Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas (left-back), and Szoboszlai and Jones (central midfield) that when he has two players in a position he feels he can rely on, he will rotate between them.
The more radical option to get all four in the same team would be playing Isak and Ekitike together up front, which was seemingly Newcastle's original plan two weeks ago.
Such a shift would probably require Wirtz to move into a left-sided role, with Salah remaining on the right in a 4-2-2-2 system. When speaking about options on the left, Slot mentioned Wirtz and Ngumoha as alternatives to Gakpo — but did not mention Ekitike.
Advertisement
The former Eintracht Frankfurt forward is familiar with a two-striker system, having flourished alongside Omar Marmoush in the first six months of last season. They provided and profited from each other's movement and creativity.
'I do what the coach asks me to do, but I like to do everything,' Ekitike told Liverpoolfc.com. 'I can't define myself only as a striker (who likes) to finish: I like to play, I like to be in the game (and) create also. I can play alone and I like to play also with another striker. You need to adapt.'
Partnerships are often formed because players complement each other. That won't be the case for Isak and Ekitike, as stylistically they are very similar. That's not to say it wouldn't work, but they might end up occupying each other's space in the early stages.
Slot craves fluidity, so you could imagine Wirtz moving into the central spaces in that 4-2-2-2 while Ekitike makes runs into the channel, or Ekitike dropping deeper to link play centrally, which is another of his strengths.
Gakpo will have plenty to say about all this. He finished as Liverpool's second top scorer last season, with 19 goals in all competitions, and the 26-year-old has made a very sharp start to pre-season, scoring against Preston North End and Milan.
Wirtz in the No 10 role has already raised questions about who assumes the responsibility of doing some of Salah's running, never mind what happens in a two-forward system. It could place huge pressure on the double pivot axis of Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, leaving them with even more space to cover.
Szoboszlai was tasked with plenty of off-ball work last season and operated on the right of the two deeper midfielders against Yokohama, with Gravenberch moving over to the left. And all that is before we figure out where the integral Mac Allister fits in.
Advertisement
In his first year at Liverpool, Slot demonstrated his tactical acumen, and he will need it again to settle a much-changed squad as quickly as possible and make sure it does not look like he is fitting square pegs into round holes.
(Top photos: Jan Kruger, Etsuo Hara, Alex Livesey,; design: Will Tullos)