There’s a difference between “can play there” and “should live there”, and that’s where I keep landing with the idea of Ekitike starting off the left. Yes, he can do it. Plenty of strikers drift wide, receive on the touchline, and end up arriving in the box anyway. But if you’re signing a forward you think can be a main man, shunting him into a role that asks him to spend long spells away from the penalty spot can end up feeling like you’re limiting the very thing you’re paying for.

It’s the same conversation we’ve had before with Nunez. He can operate from the left channel, he can run the outside shoulder, he can carry you up the pitch. But instinctively he’s a central striker. He wants to stretch the line, attack the six-yard box, and be on the end of moves rather than starting them next to the full-back.

“Can play left” isn’t the same as “best on the left”

When people talk about Ekitike on the left, I get it. It’s an easy way to imagine fitting two centre-forwards into one XI without changing the rest of the structure. One plays through the middle, one starts wide and roams in. Job done.

But the balance still matters. If Ekitike has that ‘I’m the guy’ vibe, then the question becomes: will he be happy, and more importantly effective, doing the graft that a left-sided forward needs to do in the Premier League? Holding width at the right times, tracking runners, making the pitch big so others can play. Some forwards can do it and still score. Others end up half a winger, half a striker, and not quite either.

Two strikers changes everything

The cleanest answer is a proper two-striker shape. Not a forward starting wide on the teamsheet and slowly migrating inside, but an actual partnership. That immediately solves the “who plays where” headache and gives you two bodies consistently occupying the centre-backs.

The trade-off is obvious: you probably lose something elsewhere, whether that’s an extra midfielder for control or a natural wide threat for one-v-one situations. Under Arne Slot, you’d want the spacing, the counter-press, the rest defence. None of that disappears, but the whole team has to tilt around it.

If the spend is huge, the goals have to follow

And this is the bit that sticks with me. If Liverpool are committing a massive combined outlay on forwards, you don’t want a “nice problem to have”. You want output. You want both of them banging in goals, not taking turns, not rotating into form, not one becoming a luxury option off the bench.

Truth is, unless you’ve got a plan to start them together most weeks, you’re relying on one of them accepting a slightly unnatural role or accepting reduced minutes. That can work, to be fair. But it’s a tougher sell when the expectation is that both are meant to be headline scorers.

Written by Faithinworks: 29 January 2026

Tags: transfers efl tactics