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Dietmar Hamann has reassured Liverpool's supporters that the club "clearly" has a plan for how to accommodate both Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike.
The Reds entered the market for two high-profile strikers in the summer as replacements for last season's two main strikers: Liverpool had always intended to offload Darwin Nunez in the off-season, and Diogo Jota's tragic passing brought about a need for the club to sign a second new striker.
Not many Liverpool fans had envisioned that Ekitike would start his Liverpool career in the impressive fashion that he has, and the Frenchman's brilliance coupled with a slow start from Isak has left many fans questioning how the pair will both be accommodated in the team going forward.
Former Liverpool midfielder Hamann believes Arne Slot will have a solution in mind, and suggested that the pair could potentially line up as a front two.
“I think centre forward and goalkeeper are the two positions where you don't really want too much competition," Hamann told FootballBlog.co.uk.
"Obviously you need somebody who plays when your centre-forward is injured, and to keep him on his toes. But if you've got two centre forwards that cost £100 million or more, the question will be, can they play together?
“Because over the course of a season, I don't think either will be happy to sit out half the games, or more than half the games. Clearly they have a plan for this, or they wouldn’t have bought them both, so I’m sure Slot thinks there is a way to fit them both into his team.
“There's not many teams these days playing with two centre-forwards and then obviously what doesn't help is that Isak didn't train for a long time.
“He missed a lot of pre-season and maybe wasn’t as fit at the start of the season because of it. It's very hard to pick up fitness during the season. I think this is what we see now.
“Once he's back to full fitness, which is hopefully soon, I hope there's a way they get both on the pitch and we see the form he showed in Newcastle.”
Hamann's comments come after former Liverpool teammate Jamie Carragher expressed his concerns over the Isak-Ekitike conundrum earlier this week.
“I could totally understand it’s not easy, and this was always my reservation about buying two strikers for that much money who both play in the same position,” Carragher said on Sky Sports.
“It’s very difficult to see a Liverpool team get two strikers on the pitch, it’s not easy to do that. So I understand trying to get Isak in the team even though Ekitike was doing well – because he’s a great player, he’s got to get him fit and he’s also paid a lot of money for him.
“My mind boggles going forward how this is going to work, but right now Ekitike’s got the shirt, he’s playing really well and it will probably do Isak a little bit of good if he’s out of the team to build his fitness up in training more.”
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