Liverpool’s stumbling 2025-26 season hasn’t gone as anyone involved would have hoped or expected, with the defending champion Reds currently sat sixth after 23 rounds and having this week been passed by Manchester United and Chelsea, two sides that recently fired their managers for underwhelming results.
Amongst the poor results and often shockingly dull football, though, there have been a few bright spots. None perhaps moreso than that of summer signing Hugo Ekitike, who many assumed would end up second choice to Alexander Isak but who has instead been one of their few consistently elite performers this season.
“I wouldn’t say he’s a bargain or a steal at nearly £80m, but at the moment he’s the one that’s done the best out of the three big signings in the summer,” said former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore to The Liverpool Echo when asked about this season’s positives. “Ekitike is a cracking player and will have a great deal of success.
“He’s an all-round very, very good striker. He is very sharp and quick-thinking and that’s why he can go on to be a success at Liverpool. If you play the ball into him at various angles where Liverpool have dominated the ball and the other teams have low blocks, he can move the ball off the line quickly or get a shot away.
“When you play the ball into him, he makes it stick. He can play the ball over the top, he has aggressive pace and his finishing in the box is excellent, one or two-touch finishing, he knows where he wants the ball to be before he puts it there. I don’t think there’s £30m-£40m worth of difference between [Ekitike and Isak].”
While manager Arne Slot faces justified criticism for a sterile brand of football that prioritizes possession but shuns opportunities to break and allows opposition defences to set in a low block he then points to as the reason Liverpool’s attacking threat has dropped, there should also be criticism for the club’s recruitment.
Having signed Ekitike last summer in a big money deal and with the Frenchman impressing early, Liverpool continued to prioritize the signing of Alexander Isak for even more money rather than shoring up weaknesses on the wing and in defence while selling positional players including Luis Diaz and Jarrell Quansah.
It is telling perhaps that even after Isak suffered an injury late on in 2025, the focus has stayed on Liverpool’s shortcomings at those positions rather than striker, and in retrospect it’s clear signing a cheaper depth option to back up Ekitike while also strengthening the depth at those positions would have been wiser.
At the moment, it is Slot in the firing line, and with the manager defending results this week by asking fans not to believe their eyes and ears it’s increasingly hard to back him, but director of football Richard Hughes deserves criticism, too. Still, at least in the midst of this trashfire season we all get to watch Hugo Ekitike.
