Liverpool’s £300m squad overhaul: Isak’s revival and Ekitike’s return

Liverpool did not just refresh their squad in the summer of 2025. They detonated it and rebuilt.

More than £300 million went into a front-line overhaul designed to keep the Premier League champions ahead of the pack. Florian Wirtz arrived for £116m, Hugo Ekitike for £69m, and Alexander Isak became the most expensive player in British football when he walked away from St James’ Park and into Anfield.

It looked like a statement of dominance. On the pitch, it quickly turned into a test of patience.

Big fees, bigger frustrations

Wirtz, the German playmaker billed as the creative spark to light up Anfield, never quite caught fire. He struggled to impose himself, drifting on the edges of games instead of dictating them.

Ekitike’s story was harsher. An Achilles injury in April cut him down just as he was trying to settle.

Isak’s start, though, was the most jarring of all. He missed pre-season, then broke his leg. Rhythm vanished before it even had a chance to build. Across all competitions, the £100m-plus striker returned only four goals. For a player carrying the “most expensive in British football” tag, that number screamed louder than any criticism.

By the start of 2026-27, the questions had sharpened. Was this a slow burn or a misfire?

A spark at last

Now, there is at least a flicker of the forward Liverpool thought they had signed.

The 26-year-old has scored three times in his last two Premier League appearances. The movement looks crisper, the finishing more instinctive. The body language has changed too. A striker who once seemed weighed down by expectation now looks more like a man chasing defenders, not ghosts.

For Andoni Iraola, that matters. For the first time in a long while, he does not have to agonise over who leads the line. Isak has the shirt, and right now he is keeping it on merit.

Ekitike, though, is not far away. He is expected back around the turn of the year, and that timeline raises an awkward question: has Isak benefited from the lack of genuine competition while he searched for form?

Jermaine Pennant does not buy the idea that fortune has carried the Swede.

Speaking to GOAL in association with NetBet Casino, the former Liverpool winger said: “I wouldn't say fortunate because I think they would have found a way maybe to play them both.

“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.”

Two big-money forwards. One centre-forward role. And a manager who might yet be tempted to rip up the template to fit them both in.

Pressure from the past, and from the stands

The scrutiny on Isak has never been just about goals. It is about what his success, or failure, says for Liverpool’s wider rebuild.

Robbie Fowler, still “God” to the red half of Merseyside, admitted before this season that he had doubts over the Swede’s fitness and his ability to deliver consistently.

Speaking to GOAL, he did not dress it up: Isak has to come good now if Liverpool are to avoid dipping back into the market.

“Absolutely,” Fowler said, when asked if this season is decisive. “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 message is clear. Big names at Liverpool do not get unlimited time. Not in the dugout, not in the penalty area.

Champions League reminder and a new rival

Isak’s mini-resurgence has not yet turned into a full-blown surge. He scored against Nottingham Forest and Ipswich, but when Liverpool opened their 2026-27 Champions League campaign, he drew a blank.

Liverpool still beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 at Anfield, coming from behind under the lights, but their record signing did not join the party on the scoresheet. Nights like that underline the gap between “better” and “undroppable”.

And just as Isak starts to find his feet, another major signing has walked through the door.

France international Bradley Barcola has arrived for £123m. Another huge fee. Another attacking talent who expects to play. He offers pace, width, and direct running – and another layer to Iraola’s growing selection puzzle.

Barcola’s presence changes the angles. If he nails down a spot on one flank and Ekitike returns to fitness, the options multiply and the margin for error shrinks. Isak is no longer the untouchable centrepiece of a long-term project. He is part of a very expensive equation that must add up quickly.

For now, he has the goals, the momentum and the trust of his manager. Soon he will also have Ekitike back at his shoulder and Barcola demanding the ball.

Liverpool spent like champions to stay champions. The next few months will reveal whether Alexander Isak is the striker that investment was built around – or just the first piece in a front line that is still being rewritten.