Isak's Gamble: Can He Justify Liverpool's £300m Investment?
The numbers from the summer of 2025 still look surreal on a balance sheet. Florian Wirtz for £116m. Hugo Ekitike for £69m. Alexander Isak, the headline act, arriving from Newcastle to become the most expensive player in British football.
Liverpool weren’t rebuilding from rubble. They were champions, flush with a Premier League title and determined to stay ahead of the pack. This was supposed to be a statement of dominance, not a roll of the dice.
Twelve months on, it feels a lot more like a gamble.
A Record Fee, a Broken Rhythm
Isak’s Liverpool career never really got a clean run-up. He missed pre-season, then suffered a broken leg. The club’s record signing was reduced to a frustrated spectator as the side tried to evolve around him.
Four goals in all competitions across that first campaign is a stark return for a striker signed to define an era. The Swede carried the weight of the fee, the expectation, and the comparisons, yet rarely the ball in dangerous areas often enough.
He wasn’t alone in struggling. Wirtz, the German playmaker brought in to light up Anfield, never quite imposed himself. Ekitike’s season was shredded by an Achilles injury in April. The lavish summer suddenly looked fragile, high-end talent sitting in the treatment room or searching for rhythm.
By the start of 2026-27, the questions around Isak had hardened. Was this a slow burn, or a slow failure?
A Flicker of the Real Isak
The response, at least in the league, has offered a hint of the player Liverpool thought they were buying.
Isak has found the net three times in his last two Premier League outings. The movement looks sharper. The confidence, that elusive striker’s currency, seems to be returning. At 26, this is no longer a prospect trying to make sense of a big move; this is a forward who has to deliver now.
For Arne Slot’s successor, Iraola, one problem has quietly eased. For the moment, there is no raging debate about who should lead the line. Isak is fit, scoring, and starting. That alone is a change from the turbulence of the previous year.
Ekitike, though, is on the way back. The France international is expected to return around the turn of the year. When he does, the dynamic shifts again.
Pennant: “They Would Have Found a Way”
Some have wondered whether Isak has been fortunate not to face fierce competition while feeling his way back into form. Jermaine Pennant, speaking to GOAL in association with NetBet Casino, doesn’t buy the idea that the Swede has simply benefited from a clear run.
“I wouldn't say fortunate because I think they would have found a way maybe to play them both,” the former Liverpool winger said.
He pointed to the timing of Ekitike’s injury and Cody Gakpo’s struggles as a key factor.
“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.”
That vision – Isak as the central spear, Ekitike cutting in from the left, fluidly forming a double nine – is precisely the kind of tactical luxury Liverpool thought they were buying. Injuries simply postponed the experiment.
The delay won’t last much longer.
Fowler’s Warning Shot
Not everyone around Anfield is content to wait and see. Robbie Fowler, still revered as ‘God’ on the Kop, sounded a clear warning before this season kicked off.
He admitted to GOAL that he was worried about Isak’s fitness and his ability to live up to the fee and the role. For Fowler, this isn’t just about a striker’s form; it’s about the direction of the project.
He framed it bluntly, linking Isak’s situation to the scrutiny on the dugout.
“Absolutely. 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 implication is clear. At a club like Liverpool, patience has a ceiling. When the questions start, they rarely stop on their own.
Goals, Gaps and a New Headache
Isak has at least started to answer some of those questions domestically. He found the net against Nottingham Forest and Ipswich, important goals for a player who needed to feel decisive again.
Europe told a different story. In Liverpool’s opening Champions League fixture of 2026-27, a comeback 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid at Anfield, Isak drew a blank. The team found a way, but their record signing did not find the scoresheet.
That contrast will not be ignored. Liverpool did not spend a British-record fee for a striker who only hurts mid-table Premier League sides. They paid for a forward who changes the temperature of Champions League nights.
While Isak wrestles with that expectation, the recruitment department has kept spending. France international Bradley Barcola has arrived for £123m, another eye-watering fee, another attacking talent to fit into an already crowded front line.
Barcola brings pace, width and directness. He also brings a fresh selection dilemma for Iraola. Once Ekitike returns, the Liverpool manager could be juggling Isak, Ekitike, Barcola, Gakpo and others, all vying for minutes in a frontline that cannot accommodate everyone at once.
For now, Isak has the shirt. He has goals in his last league outings and, crucially, he has time – but not much of it.
Because once the full cast is fit and firing, Liverpool’s record signing will no longer be judged in isolation. He’ll be measured against the players bought around him, the manager tasked with fitting them together, and the brutal arithmetic of elite football: does he make this team better, or does that huge fee start to look like a weight Liverpool can no longer afford to carry?
