Liverpool’s new signing Hugo Ekitike has been officially priced as an £8.5m forward for the 2025/26 Fantasy Premier League season, adding another exciting option to their already star-studded attack.
The Frenchman is a quick, rangy striker in the Alexander Isak (£10.5m) mould. He enjoyed a breakout campaign in the Bundesliga last season, producing 15 goals and eight assists in 33 league matches.
He offers a blend of goalscoring and chance-creating potential that could make him a compelling pick. But with Liverpool’s wealth of attacking talent, FPL managers may need to consider how Ekitike fits into Arne Slot’s plans before adding him to their squad.
Ekitike was identified as a player of pedigree by Paris Saint-Germain in 2022 when they signed him from Stade Reims, after he had scored 10 league goals in the 2021/22 season. But the Frenchman struggled to find room in a team boasting Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, and left for Eintracht Frankfurt after three goals and four assists in 25 league appearances.
There were similarly modest returns in his first season in Germany (four goals and two assists) but he exploded in 2024/25, racking up 22 goals and 12 assists in 48 appearances in all competitions.
The France Under-21 international’s underlying statistics suggest a player whose ceiling is very high. Last season he was the joint-sixth highest scorer in the league, while only seven players in the Bundesliga provided more assists than his eight.
Ekitike is both a goalscorer and a goal creator. He created more chances from open play, 44, in the Bundesliga last season than any other forward and ranked joint-fourth in the German top flight for attacking returns, with 23.
Analysing his performance across the top five European leagues only four players recorded a higher combined non-penalty Expected Goal Involvement (xGI) total than the Frenchman, while only two bettered his non-penalty Expected Goals (xG) figure.
Highest non-penalty Expected Goal Involvement (xGI) in the top five European leagues
| Player | Club | Non-penalty xGI |
| Mohamed Salah | Liverpool | 32.4 |
|---|---|---|
| Raphinha | Barcelona | 30.3 |
| Kylian Mbappe | Real Madrid | 26.3 |
| Robert Lewandowski | Barcelona | 26.3 |
| Hugo Ekitike | Eintracht Frankfurt | 26.0 |
| Cole Palmer | Chelsea | 24.2 |
Top-flight appearances
Ekitike has made 118 of his 124 top-flight appearances as a central striker so it's fair to assume that the Frenchman will be deployed as a No 9, with Mohamed Salah (£14.5m) on the right and one of Florian Wirtz (£8.5m), Cody Gakpo (£7.5m) or Luis Diaz (£8.0m) on the left.
Of those last three Wirtz, as the club’s reported record signing, is a sure-fire starter, which may even mean a tweak to Slot’s usual formation. Perhaps the German playmaker will play as a No 10 behind a front two of Salah and Ekitike. We will have to keep an eye on Slot's set-up in pre-season matches to ascertain where the new signings fit in.
With such an embarrassment of riches, the suspicion to begin with, at least, is that Ekitike may spend some time on the bench while he is integrated into the Premier League champions' front line.
Liverpool have a tricky start to their fixture schedule, with Newcastle United away and Arsenal at home in the first three Gameweeks. The Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR) suggests FPL managers might be worth holding fire on any moves for Liverpool’s new forward at least until Gameweek 4, by which time we will have had a change to assess this new-look Liverpool and where exactly Ekitike slots in.
Liverpool's opening six fixtures
| GW | Opp | FDR* |
| 1 | BOU (H) | 3 |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | NEW (A) | 4 |
| 3 | ARS (H) | 4 |
| 4 | BUR (A) | 2 |
| 5 | EVE (H) | 2 |
| 6 | CRY (A) | 3 |
*1 = easiest, 5 = hardest