Report: Liverpool now monitoring ‘dream’ forward who’s outscoring Hugo Ekitike this season
Liverpool have reportedly added a prolific centre-forward to their list of prospective signings for 2026.
Arne Slot is currently working with a heavily depleted attack as Alexander Isak has been struck down with a long-term injury, Cody Gakpo is also sidelined (but appears to be close to returning) and Mo Salah is away at the Africa Cup of Nations.
If the Netherlands international doesn’t recover in time to face Wolves on Saturday, it’ll leave the Reds with just two senior forwards available in Hugo Ekitike and Federico Chiesa, and the latter has yet to start a Premier League match this season.
Speculation over a potential swoop for Antoine Semenyo has understandably intensified of late in that context, but there appears to be an even more prolific attacker in the English top flight on Liverpool’s radar.
Liverpool monitoring Igor Thiago
According to CaughtOffside, Anfield chiefs are currently monitoring Igor Thiago, who’s been in outstanding form for Brentford, with his tally of 11 Premier League goals this term surpassed only by Erling Haaland with a scarcely believable 19.
The 24-year-old is viewed as a ‘stylistic fit’ for Slot’s team, but naturally the Bees are determined not to sell their top scorer mid-season unless they were to receive an ‘extraordinary offer’.
How has Thiago been performing compared to Ekitike?
There aren’t too many forwards outperforming Ekitike in the Premier League this season, but Thiago is one of them. The Brentford target man has 12 goals in 1,435 minutes across all competitions this term, one more than the Liverpool striker has netted in 1,478 minutes on the pitch.
Bees manager Keith Andrews has unsurprisingly been in awe of the Brazilian, describing him as a ‘dream to work with’ and having a ‘hunger and appetite’ to improve even further (Tribal Football).
As the table below illustrates, citing figures from FBref, he and Ekitike have generally been well-matched in the current campaign for a series of underlying performance metrics, with the Reds’ number 22 narrowly coming out on top in a few categories.
| Igor Thiago | Hugo Ekitike | |
| Goals per 90 minutes | 0.71 | 0.75 |
| Shots on target per 90 minutes | 0.90 | 0.94 |
| Pass completion | 70.2% | 72.8% |
| Dribbling success | 47.8% | 52.9% |
| Aerial duel success | 39.1% | 37.2% |
Thiago may well earn himself a lucrative transfer to a Champions League club in one of Europe’s five main leagues if he continues to bang in the goals for Brentford, although ousting two centre-forwards at Liverpool who cost approximately £200m between them would be quite the challenge.
Realistically it’s difficult to envisage the Reds going all-in on the 24-year-old next month, given the west London outfit’s justifiable reluctance to sell, but a continuation of his outstanding form will surely have the elite of Europe knocking on the door for the red-hot Brazilian.
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