Not Isak: Liverpool star is their own version of Arsenal icon Thierry Henry
Had Liverpool found another stoppage-time goal at the weekend, they would have beaten Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and extended their flawless streak in the Premier League, six wins from six, 18 points from 18.
But Arne Slot’s side cannot subsist on a diet of last-gasp joy across the span of the campaign, and they got a taste of their own medicine as Eddie Nketiah struck late to condemn the Reds to their first defeat of the year.
In some ways, Liverpool’s never-quit attitude has papered over a few cracks in Slot’s squad across the early weeks of the 2025/26 season, with tactical imbalances clear after a summer of significant spending and upheaval.
Florian Wirtz, for example, has flattered to deceive since his £116m move from Bayer Leverkusen, but FSG are calm and confident, retaining full belief that the German playmaker, 22, will come good.
Liverpool have also added two of the most exciting strikers in the business to their ranks. Indeed, in Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak, the Merseysiders have goalscoring options capable of firing the club toward more illustrious success after last year’s Premier League triumph.
Isak & Ekitike are Liverpool's future
Isak might be the record-breaking man, but the events of the summer transfer window have meant that the former Newcastle United striker has integrated late at Liverpool.
Ekitike, ostensibly the 26-year-old’s understudy, has started his Liverpool career with lightning speed, scoring five goals and registering one assist across eight matches, six of which were starts.
Much has been made of how Slot can appease the pair, who will both want to start regularly across the campaign, but he has hinted that they could play alongside against each other, and given the many shoots of Liverpool’s season, having a wealth of attacking options is hardly a bad thing.
One thing’s clear, FSG have landed a pair of elite attackers, with both having been likened to a former Premier League great in Thierry Henry.
TNT Sports pundit Owen Hargreaves acknowledged in August that there is a likeness between Ekitike and his retired countryman, who also shifted between left-flanked and central striking berths.
And Isak has long been tagged as a similar sort of player to the Arsenal legend, with former footballer Nedum Onuoha saying the marksman is “vibes of Thierry Henry”, BBC pundit Alan Shearer also calling him “the complete striker”.
Isak vs Ekitike (past 365 days)
Stats (per 90)
Isak
Ekitike
Goals
0.64
0.53
Assists
0.18
0.24
Shots taken
3.18
3.64
Shot-creating actions
3.04
3.06
Progressive passes
3.22
1.90
Progressive carries
2.72
2.74
Successful take-ons
1.43
1.66
Ball recoveries
1.97
2.40
Tackles + interceptions
0.54
0.87
Aerials won
0.82
1.92
All data via FBref
Two fantastic forwards, but Liverpool actually already had their own version of Henry, and they still do at that.
Liverpool's own version of Thierry Henry
Mohamed Salah started off poorly in the Premier League, arriving at Chelsea from Basel as a young and unpolished prospect with a clear quality on the ball and impressive athleticism besides. He didn’t manage to pull it all together, though, and left for Italy to forge his path.
And forge his path he has. The 33-year-old made an impression in the Serie A and joined Klopp’s Liverpool for £34m, now recognised globally as one of the greatest players of his generation, the poster boy of this illustrious modern era at Anfield and hailed as a “superstar” by Sky Sports’ Gary Neville.
With 188 goals scored in the Premier League, Salah is fourth in the all-time standings and looking to rise higher still. Last season, he put to bed any doubts that he is a divisional great, scoring 29 goals and supplying 18 assists as the Reds sealed their first Premier League title since 2019/20.
Time was last season when Salah almost appeared a shoo-in for the Ballon d’Or, so impressive was his start to the term. But he petered out across the second half of the campaign and was anonymous as Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League by eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.
In this way, the iconic forward shares with Henry a certain grievance over having been snubbed for the award, coming in at fourth during last week’s ceremony in Paris, with the one-time Les Bleus star missing out to Pavel Nedvěd in 2003 despite an extraordinary campaign with the Gunners, scoring 32 goals and supplying 24 assists across all competitions in 2002/03.
Inarguably two of the greatest players in English football history, both could make a compelling case for the crown.
For Salah, he will have brushed off any frustration over being snubbed, having, after all, been the talisman in Liverpool’s Premier League title triumph.
But it must still sting, and with Henry and the Egyptian being ranked against each other so many times, this is seemingly something they will share when Salah eventually joins the Frenchman in retirement.
Set to soon pass the torch, the veteran will no doubt feel that the 2024/25 campaign marked his best chance to win the Ballon d’Or. It wasn’t to be, with the Egyptian no doubt frustrated that he didn’t even reach the podium after what will go down as one of the greatest season-long efforts in English history.
Salah might be approaching the final stretch of his legendary Premier League career without a Ballon d’Or title to his name, but he will still go down as an all-timer, having played an instrumental role in putting Liverpool back on their perch over the past eight-and-a-half years.
Likewise, Henry never got his mitts on the pinnacle individual accolade, but fans of the two persuasions will be sure to agree that both were good enough to have claimed the prize.
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