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Alexander Isak vs. Hugo Ekitike: which striker should Liverpool sign?
Analysis
Liverpool are looking to sign a striker this summer.
Darwin Nunez appears to be on the way out of Anfield this summer and Liverpool are looking to replace him with a top quality striker.
They are most heavily linked with two names; Alexander Isak at Newcastle and Eintracht Frankfurt's Hugo Ekitike.
Current ETV
Alexander Isak
F (C)
Newcastle Utd.
Alexander Isak
F (C)
Newcastle Utd.
ETV Range
€104.5M - €127.7M
Both are quality footballers with modern skill-sets; so the question then becomes, which one of the two should they sign?
We've had a look and compared the two men across a variety of categories and stats (all stats are league-only) to see who the Reds should go for in the end.
Current ETV
Hugo Ekitiké
F (C)
E. Frankfurt
Hugo Ekitiké
F (C)
E. Frankfurt
ETV Range
€64M - €78.2M
Isak vs Ekitike: Age and Experience
Alexander Isak is 25 years-old and will turn 26 in September of this year. Meanwhile Ekitike only just turned 23 in June. That age gap is quite notable given how the rest of these stats will look.
In terms of experience, Isak made his debut with AIK in 2016 and has played 312 career games. Meanwhile Ekitike made his debut with Reims B in 2019, in the fourth tier of French football.
Isak vs Ekitike: Goalscoring
While they have to bring more to the table, especially in the modern game, strikers trade in goals. It is the most important thing they can do.
Last season Isak scored 23 times in the Premier League off 95 shots (43.2% of which were on target) and an xG total 20.3.
Ekitike scored 15 goals from 114 shots (38.6% of which were on target) and an xG total of 21.6, which is well ahead of his actual total.
Isak has a clear edge as a goalscorer, with Ekitike showing a lot of promise with that xG number but has not yet managed to get his finishing up to that standard.
Isak vs Ekitike: Creativity
Creativity is a nearly impossible thing to measure using numbers alone, but nevertheless Isak has 6 assists off and xA of 3.6 while also making an impressive 88 progressive passes.
Ekitike meanwhile had 8 assists off 5.4 xA while making just 53 progressive passes. Here though you have to consider the quality of Ekitike's team-mates, bar Omar Marmoush, was not really on the same level as Isak's.
STATS
Alexander Isak
F (C)
Newcastle Utd.
Alexander Isak
F (C)
Newcastle Utd.
Isak vs Ekitike: Dribbling
Can you run with the ball? It's not essential for 6'3 target men to do so, but it does help! Isak completed 42/91 take-ons last season, which is 46.2%.
Meanwhile Ekitike completed 52/119 which is 43.7%. Both strikers are about as good as each other at dribbling the ball. Not that Liverpool would need them to do too much of that given Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz and Florian Wirtz.
STATS
Hugo Ekitiké
F (C)
E. Frankfurt
Hugo Ekitiké
F (C)
E. Frankfurt
Isak vs Ekitike: International Football
While either man would be playing for Liverpool and not their nations, it's worth looking at their international success because that always provides a decent window into how the player can perform under the most pressure possible.
Isak has played 52 times for the Swedish men's team, with a haul of 16 goals to go with it. That's not very impressive of course, but it's worth pointing out that he does have 6 goals in 10 appearances across 2024 and 2025.
Ekitike has only played for France U21's, for obvious reasons, but he does have 5 goals in 5 games for them. One suspects a move to Liverpool would see his chances of playing up-front with Kylian Mbappe dramatically improve, however.
Isak vs Ekitike: Price
The final point of comparison is price, or how much they would cost Liverpool to sign.
Isak is simple: Newcastle have set a valuation of £150 million and don't appear intent on budging from that. It would be a Premier League record fee were it to go through.
Ekitike, meanwhile, has been priced from anywhere from €80 million up to €100 million. In terms of comparison, €100 million is approximately £86 million, meaning that even at his most expensive Ekitike would cost just over half of what Isak would.
Isak vs Ekitike: Conclusion
So who should Liverpool go for? Conventional wisdom says you select the striker who has played more games and scored more goals. That's what strikers are there for, right?
Isak is a better goalscorer, and a much more consistent one at that. Across all competitions he's scored more goals just for Newcastle (62) than Ekitike's entire career (50) including games with Reims B in the French fourth division.
However, the upside of Ekitike is enormous. He's almost three years younger than Isak, is more just about as creative of a striker, is just about as good a dribbler, and while his finishing isn't as sharp his movement is.
Remember Ekitike actually has a higher xG than Isak does, it's just he's failed to find his rhythm. Liverpool are probably looking at that and using their massive army of analytics nerds to map out a trajectory whereby Ekitike, with proper coaching and better team-mates, explodes into not only matching those xG numbers by surpassing them.
Sure, in his first year or two he may struggle, but the potential for him to explode as Mohamed Salah did is very real. Meanwhile in the meantime it's Salah whose absurdly consistent goalscoring would take the pressure off Ekitike and allow him to maybe have a season where he scores just 15 times as he adapts to England, and it's not a disaster because it sets him up to improve.
Now he would have to actually improve, but there's nothing to suggest he won't given a stable and nurturing environment like Liverpool.
And when you consider that Ekitike, despite being nearly three years younger and producing remarkably similar output to Isak already, would require and initial outlay of just over half that which would prise Isak out of Newcastle?
It's a no brainer.
Most clubs would sign Isak.
Liverpool are not most clubs.
Liverpool should sign Hugo Ekitike.
