Can Liverpool Accommodate Ekitike and Isak? Arne Slot's Use of Subs

Liverpool are not used to spending (up to) £79m on a second choice player. Will Hugo Ekitike get enough minutes if the Reds sign Alexander Isak?

Liverpool have always maximised the use of their resources in their most successful seasons under Fenway Sports Group. Signing Hugo Ekitike for a fee potentially hitting £79m may buck that trend if Alexander Isak joins for what will almost-certainly be a new British transfer record.

Look at Arne Slot’s first year in charge. Seven of the Reds’ top eight earners made at least 28 league starts. Bournemouth prised that level of inclusion from six of their best paid octet, no other club in the Premier League got that out of more than four of their leading eight salary men.

Regular accuracy disclaimer notwithstanding, Ekitike currently sits third in the Liverpool pay scale. He won’t be starting all-but-10 matches of the Reds’ league programme if they sign Isak. It has been suggested (including by Slot) that the Frenchman could be an option on the left; he’s played four club games there in his entire career, one of which was in a Danish Superliga relegation play-off.

It doesn’t mean Ekitike can’t play out wide, but it would represent another significant shift within a Liverpool team that risks being weighed down by their personnel changes this season. As an aside, his one-time potential U-21 coach at international level - you know him as Thierry Henry - weighed in on this debate earlier this week:

A far likelier way Ekitike will work his way onto the pitch in the Isak era will be to deputise for a player who has had his share of injury problems in the past. The boss is expected to use greater rotation this season than he did in year one.

In fairness to the Swede, his proportion of Premier League minutes played for Newcastle has risen from 44.5 through 65.9 to 80.6 per cent with each passing season. He will need protecting, nonetheless.

This will be done in-game as well as by leaving Isak on the bench. Slot’s substitution policy ensured that his centre-forwards did not complete many full games last season. Diogo Jota (four) and Darwin Núñez (six) did this just 10 times between them.

Thinking back, Slot’s strategy with his substitutions feels standardised; forwards replacing forwards, a full-back on for a full-back, that sort of thing.

Yet although such moves occurred fairly often, the Liverpool head coach deployed 104 different combinations of duos when making an in-game change. It may not be as straightforward as assuming Ekitike will come on for Isak whenever he starts.