Wayne Rooney tells Liverpool they have a new 'superstar' in their ranks who can compete with Alexander Isak
Liverpool spent big in the summer, but who should be their number nine - Alexander Isak or Hugo Ekitike?
When Hugo Ekitike signed for Liverpool it looked like any plans to sign Alexander Isak had been shelved by Richard Hughes and his recruitment team.
A dramatic record-breaking deadline day deal for Isak wasn’t a shock by the time it was announced, however, the money spent by the Premier League leaders still has outsiders questioning how it was possible.
It was also a transfer that would have had Ekitike questioning whether or not he had made the right decision given the money that had been paid for his strike rival. With three goals and one assist in five league games though, the France international has shown that he isn’t going anywhere quietly and he has impressed someone who knows a thing or two about leading the line at an elite level.
Hugo Ekitike or Alexander Isak for Wayne Rooney?
Speaking on his BBC Sport podcast, Wayne Rooney doesn’t think that Isak is going to get it all his own way at Anfield.
“I think the sending off to Ekitike [against Southampton] was bigger than people think,” he told The Wayne Rooney Show when reflecting on the dropped points to Crystal Palace. “I think he’s a superstar, he can affect Liverpool in so many different ways. Obviously they’ve got Isak but I think that loss was massive.”
“Ekitike one million per cent is in competition with Isak,” Rooney later added. “You’ve got a real competition between two forwards who are slightly different. Who wants it more? Who’s going to score, who’s going to create? Right now I would put Ekitike in there.
“Isak is proven in the Premier League that he can do that. But he has to prove he can do it at Anfield. It’s different, completely different. Playing in front of that crowd, the history, the atmosphere, the pressure. Ekitike has taken it quite quickly. Everything I’ve seen at the moment Isak hasn’t been able to do that so quickly, I’m sure when he gets fit that will change.”
Could Slot change formation to play Isak and Ekitike?
Isak is a different type of centre forward to Ekitike and given how Slot used to set up his team with Luis Diaz, could easily play off the left-hand side with either Andy Robertson or Milos Kerkez overlapping to provide width.
The strikers share a similar physical profile in terms of height, but it is Ekitike that is the more aggressive and, as Rooney says, was a big miss against Palace in what is always a difficult place to play.
What the Reds boss could also do to help keep Mohamed Salah fresh is play Ekitike and Isak as a pairing with Florian Wirtz behind them as a no.10.
At 33-years old, the Egyptian king isn’t going to be around forever and there needs to be a plan B or a plan for when he decides that he has had enough of the Premier League and the demands it places on a veteran body. Ekitike should be the man in possession of the jersey though if Slot only goes with one, until Isak shows that he is worth every penny of his transfer fee that is.