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With the capture of Hugo Ekitike, Liverpool has continued to splash the cash. Committing up to $106 million (£79 million), including add-ons, for the Frenchman, it is a statement move.
Having not long turned 23, Ekitike very much has the best years of his career ahead of him. And that Liverpool has handed him a six-year contract suggests he is viewed as a longer-term project.
With 22 goals and 12 assists in all competitions last season, though, there is a really good base level from which to start. Ekitike should get better with better players around him, but he is already incredibly talented.
Compared to other forwards in Europe's top five leagues in the last 12 months, Ekitike is in the 96th percentile for progressive carries and successful take-ons, showing his dribbling ability.
He is also in the 96th percentile for non-penalty goals and assists combined, and the 94th for shot-creating actions. His numbers paint the picture of a striker who is well-rounded: a goalscorer and a linker.
"He has great dribbling skills," BILD's Johannes Wolf told The Anfield Wrap last week. "He’s fast, he’s tall — he’s not a monster [in the air], but he can also score goals with the head.
"His main skills are with his foot. He has great technique, and he's great in one-on-one situations."
Having been the main man at Eintracht Frankfurt — certainly after Omar Marmoush joined Manchester City in the winter and he fired the Bundesliga side back into the Champions League — Ekitike will now have much more quality around him.
He will have gotten the first glimpse of that yesterday, when he landed in Hong Kong and met his new teammates for the first time.
"It’s good to have him here," Virgil van Dijk said. "I said to him, ‘The hard work starts now.’ He has to work his socks off and be important for us whenever he can. That’s the main thing."
Mohamed Salah, an elite creator, will be setting up chances, and Florian Wirtz could be the key to unlocking his full potential. The latter, like Ekitike, was named in the Bundesliga Team of the Season last term.
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Wirtz excels with short passes in and around the edge of the penalty area, sliding balls through impossible-looking gaps. Ekitike, meanwhile, has a propensity for wriggling his way out of a tight scenario to unleash a shot on goal.
He might be incredibly tall, but he has a deceptively good knack of keeping his balance and fending off challenges.
Arne Slot, the French outlet L'Equipe reported this week, held a video call with Ekitike ahead of his transfer move, in which he explained his plan. He wanted a "creative, mobile No.9 capable of combining, dropping forward, and also playing deep".
In the former PSG talent, the Liverpool boss has got his wish. And in Wirtz, he has the ideal number 10 to take on much of the creative burden in the hole behind him.
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