How would Liverpool fit Ekitike and Isak in the same team?

Liverpool’s summer window was already the most curious we’ve ever seen from a Premier League champion.

Signing Bundesliga stars en masse and swapping out both full-backs implies a major tactical shift that will emphatically end the Jurgen Klopp era and herald the dawn of a new one.

But bringing in Newcastle’s Alexander Isak would push Liverpool’s transfer business into unprecedented territory, having already also signed Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt.

Not since the age of good old-fashioned 4-4-2s – when little-and-large strike partnerships were borderline mandatory – have we seen a top club sign two elite number nines in the same window.

What exactly is Arne Slot thinking?

All of our theories here are going to require some square pegs in round holes – except this one.

Liverpool could deploy a squeezed 4-2-3-1, in which the nominal wingers Salah and Ekitike are so narrow they operate more as number 10s either side of Florian Wirtz, with the width then provided by two flying full-backs.

This system would allow for fluid movement among that trio of number 10s. For example, when one of Salah and Ekitike drifts wide the other would remain narrow alongside Wirtz, creating the box-shape (with Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch) that is so important in modern Premier League tactics.

At other moments, Ekitike or Salah may drive ahead into more of a centre-forward role next to Isak, in turn shuffling the box up a line, connecting with two number 10s behind them.

This is arguably the most dynamic formation Slot could use to get all four players into his starting XI – but it would be quite a departure from what went before.

The simpler thing to do is fully convert Ekitike into a Luis Diaz replacement, assuming the Colombia forward completes his move to Bayern Munich.

More importantly, the way Slot has used Cody Gapko and Diaz – as one-on-one dribblers, using their acceleration to cut inside full-backs – corresponds with Ekitike’s best qualities.

Ekitike’s best football at Frankfurt came as part of a proper strike partnership with Omar Marmoush before his January departure to Manchester City saw the end of Dino Toppmoller’s 3-5-2 formation.

Marmoush and Ekitike regularly swapped positions, dove-tailing instinctively as one dropped and the other went in behind. It was a swirling, rhythmic balance that confounded defenders and propelled Frankfurt into a title challenge until late December.

Liverpool are unlikely to move to a back three any time soon, not least because a 3-5-2 with Ekitike and Isak would mean benching Salah. But there is a way to put Isak and Ekitike together, albeit a pretty risky one.

Slot’s Liverpool regularly line up in a 4-2-4/4-4-2 when not in possession, but crucially that’s with a 10 (Dominik Szoboszlai) playing very much as a third midfielder when Liverpool have the ball.

What we’re suggesting here is notably more fragile through the middle, requiring a two-man midfield to cover all the space when a quick turnover triggers an opposition counter-attack.

There’s also the problem of playing Wirtz on the left, a position he has only very occasionally played for Bayer Leverkusen and Germany.

If number three sounded a bit weird, then you won’t like this idea. But it really could work.

Wirtz is regularly compared favourably with Kevin de Bruyne, while Marmoush (Ekitike’s old strike partner and a player with similar characteristics to the new Liverpool forward) has been plonked into the De Bruyne role at Man City.

It’s plausible Ekitike could adapt into that hybrid eight/10 position, playing alongside Wirtz much in the way Pep Guardiola has historically used two aggressive eights in front of a number six.

Guardiola has always been a big influence on Slot, who once described the Catalan’s playing style as “the ultimate joy in football”. Maybe, just maybe, the Liverpool manager plans to take the Pep influence to a whole new level and regularly start with two eights/10s.

But Premier League football is increasingly transitional and end-to-end, with slower possession-hogging on its way out, which is why Guardiola is far more likely to play with two sixes – in a 4-2-3-1 – than the dual playmaker system we saw in his early title wins.

When elite teams start to see less of the ball, and when the opposition isn’t so pinned back, it becomes more important to have a solid midfield base that can block those quick-fire counters.

We don’t necessarily need to come up with a wildcard formation that crams all the new signings into the same team.

If all goes well Liverpool will play over 60 games next season, meaning they will need a regularly rotating front line to keep legs fresh and opponents guessing.

Ekitike as a £69m cover option probably doesn’t sound very appealing, but he will arguably be the second-best player in four separate positions for Liverpool – although Szoboszlai, rivalling Wirtz, might say otherwise.

When you consider injuries, the need to rotate for twice-weekly football, and Slot’s tactical adaptations to the opposition, Ekitike could easily tot up over 30 starts in all competitions even if he wasn’t technically considered to be in the club’s best XI.

Not that managers of elite clubs tend to think in terms of ‘best XIs’ anymore – schedules are too busy and injuries too common for that.

In fact, what fans assume to be their team’s best XI rarely actually play together, as many Liverpool supporters know all too well.

The most mind-blowing example of this phenomenon was first highlighted by Duncan Alexander, who pointed out that the supposedly-iconic Liverpool XI under Klopp – the one that started the Champions League final – had never played together before that game and never played together after it.