Liverpool are about to sign a player even BETTER than Alexander Isak

Liverpool fans really want the club to sign Alexander Isak but what if there was someone even better?

The Swede is the flavour of the month at the moment, and it makes sense. He's one of the best strikers in European football at the moment and has become a prolific goal-scorer.

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He's entering his prime years and it seems like he has started to have some lingering doubts about whether he may want to step up and play for an even bigger club.

Newcastle United have lofty ambitions but right now they are not even close to competing regularly for the biggest honours in the game. Their time may come but not in the immediate future.

Isak will want to compete for those titles as soon as possible considering he will be 26-years-old soon. Liverpool presents the perfect next destination.

But the major obstacle is Newcastle's asking price which is close to £150m and that's something unlikely to be paid by the Reds.

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Which is why Liverpool's recruitment team look to have moved on from Isak and are now targeting someone who could be even better.

Why Hugo Ekitike could be even better than Alexander Isak

Anfield Watch revealed exclusively that Liverpool have held talks with Hugo Ekitike's representatives and that these talks were positive.

Ekitike's a world-class striker but his name is not quiet as in the known as Isak because he's been playing in the Bundesliga. Few people will have seen him play games outside from the odd highlight reel here and there.

A lot of people also take a look at the statistics without really diving into Ekitike's numbers.

One thing that has been used as a criticism of Ekitike is his underperforming xG numbers this season. Ekitike has underperformed his xG by -3.51.

On the surface this looks bad. But in can be explained by context.

Because this a figure that's actually massively influenced by the fact that he's missed two penalties this season. And if we stretch those numbers out to all competitions this season - he's underperformance is only -1.67.

So, basically, just don't make him take penalties and Liverpool should have no qualms over his finishing.

Even in the Bundesliga, he's only underperforming his non-penalty xG by -0.10 per 90 minutes, so again the key here is the big influence of having missed two penalties, which have a very high xG score and skew his overall numbers.

None of this will be a concern to Liverpool. The club's scouts will be looking at Ekitike way beyond the xG and seeing how well he would fit into Slot's set-up and what his potential is.

Ekitike is a player who gets into goal-scoring opportunities and that is what you want from a striker. He has the highest xG in the Bundesliga (16.53) above even Harry Kane.

His 16.67% goal conversion can be improved, but it’s important to note that Ekitike is still young and this area of a striker’s game often develops at a later age when they mature.

Isak is a great example because at the same age as Ekitike, he was nowhere near his current level, nor even Ekitike's level right now.

While Isak was playing in La Liga for Real Sociedad, he had a goal conversion rate of just 8.33% during the 2021/22 campaign prior to his move to the Premier League, a huge difference from the 29.39% goal conversion rate he's averaging this season.

And when it comes to xG in that final season with Sociedad, he ranked in the top 10 forwards in La Liga for xG (10.73).

Yet he scored just six goals in La Liga during the 2021/22 campaign and underperformed his xG by a whopping -4.73.

Moving to Newcastle helped him mature as a forward and Ekitike is showing greater potential than even Isak had demonstrated at the same age.

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He'll cost way less money too compared to the Swede, which is why Liverpool will pursue him rather than Isak and which is why they may get an even better player in return.