Mohamed Salah’s departure to the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt this month had long been pinpointed as the moment Liverpool could unleash Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak together in attack.
In the event, that moment has come rather sooner.
With Salah removed from selection contention following his explosive comments to reporters after the 3-3 draw with Leeds United on Saturday, injury and illness ruling out Cody Gakpo and Federico Chiesa respectively, and 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha the only other wide option, head coach Arne Slot seems to have little choice but to deploy his two new strikers at Inter in the Champions League on Tuesday (tonight) as he seeks a statement win to relieve some of the pressure that is threatening to overwhelm his tenure.
Isak and Ekitike both arrived in this year’s summer transfer window for a combined sum that could surpass £200million ($266m) as Liverpool overhauled their attacking options.
Yet, so far, the two No 9s have started together once, in the 5-1 Champions League win against Eintracht Frankfurt in October. And it only lasted 45 minutes, as Isak was substituted at half-time due to injury. The pair have rarely shared the pitch since, except in the latter stages of games when formations have largely been abandoned as Liverpool chase results.
During the summer, when Isak was still a Newcastle United player and that club were also pursuing Frankfurt’s Ekitike, their intention was to play them together. Whether that would have worked in reality will never be known, but we are now likely set to find out whether it can be fruitful at Liverpool.
What made it intriguing is how similar the two players are. Would it actually work? Or would they just get in each other’s way?
One solution was proposed immediately after Ekitike’s July arrival at Liverpool, who felt he was sufficiently versatile to operate on the left wing.
The big difference we have seen between the two players so far is their involvement in Liverpool’s build-up play. The touch maps for Isak and Ekitike’s latest performances, against Sunderland and Leeds United, illustrate it.
Isak has been criticised because of his lack of influence during matches, and he has looked isolated too often. According to fbref.com, he has totalled 37 touches across 219 minutes in his past three starts against Nottingham Forest (13), West Ham United and Sunderland (both 12).
While there have been games when Ekitike has struggled to get on the ball, too, he nearly equalled Isak’s number of touches in one game, with 35 against Leeds. He has looked more in tune with his team-mates and has been comfortable dropping into pockets of space and linking play.
Play them together, though, and it is easy to see how they could complement each other — Ekitike dropping into pockets of space and Isak stretching the opposition defence.
We saw early signs of that in the game against Frankfurt.
As the example below shows, Ekitike dropped deeper, as did fellow newcomer Florian Wirtz, who had drifted in from the right, while Isak was positioned on the last defender. On this occasion, a sharp interchange between Wirtz and Ekitike leads to nothing.
Ekitike dropping deep and attracting attention can open up the ball in behind for Isak. In the example below, the Swede’s run is found, but the goalkeeper is out quickly to thwart him. Notice the positions of both Ekitike and Wirtz.
For a short period against Galatasaray in a Champions League tie a few weeks earlier, before Ekitike went off injured, he and Isak, plus Wirtz, were on the pitch together.
Ekitike moved to the left after starting up front, and Isak played as the No 9 having come on for the final half-hour with Liverpool a goal down. Their slick link-up led to an Isak chance that he snatched at.
What are Slot’s three tactical options?
The first is reverting to the 4-4-2 he used in Frankfurt.
Expectations that things will click instantly should be tempered because, in the first half of that match, the pair only combined for one completed pass, although the corner Liverpool managed to win from that situation did lead to their third goal of the night.
The absence of both Salah and Gakpo makes it trickier to use in Milan, because the latter started the game in Germany at left midfield, while Wirtz was the right midfielder. Wirtz could move to the other flank — his preferred side — and Dominik Szoboszlai could continue on the right, either side of a midfield duo consisting of two of Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones and Alexis Mac Allister.
The second option is the 4-4-1-1 system deployed against West Ham and Sunderland, when Szoboszlai and Gakpo were the wide midfielders and Wirtz played in behind Isak.
Liverpool have lacked a consistent threat in all three games since Salah was dropped, but it has given them a better defensive structure to build from. If Slot wants to retain that at San Siro tonight, then the simple switch would be to replace Gakpo with Ekitike on the left.
As with all of these alternatives, there is an element of the unknown here. We have yet to see Ekitike start from the left, and while he possesses the traits that should help him succeed there, different defensive responsibilities are required that he would need to adjust to, especially against a team of Inter’s quality.
The return of Conor Bradley, who assisted Ekitike’s second goal against Leeds, should benefit this shape, as he offers more attacking threat than stand-in Joe Gomez. He won the ball high up and then delivered an excellent cross for Ekitike to make it 2-0 at Elland Road.
The third option was revealed by Slot to reporters at his pre-Inter press conference.
“Against Leeds, we faced a 5-3-2, where I’ve decided to play a 4-4-2 diamond if you want to look at it like this, with Hugo Ekitike a bit off the right side and Cody Gakpo a bit off the left, with Florian Wirtz in between,” Slot said. “I could have played Mo (Salah) as well off the right instead of Hugo, but I decided to play Hugo.”
It was a slight tweak, although Gakpo still stayed very high and wide on the left throughout the game.
Using that system with two natural strikers would likely change how it would look, with both wanting to be in more central areas, closer to goal.
The biggest question mark is over their off-the-ball responsibilities.
For 72 minutes against Leeds, Liverpool’s structure had limited the home side to very few opportunities: it was only an inexplicable blunder from Ibrahima Konate that sparked the late chaos.
Ekitike and Isak have both demonstrated a willingness to work; the next step for them is impacting opponents out of possession.
With so much negativity hanging over the club after their horrendous form and now the Salah controversy, Slot will be hoping that pairing up his two expensive strikers can instigate a change in Liverpool’s form and mood.
