Liverpool's grand plan is in tatters after Hugo Ekitike injury: Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz now simply have to justify transfer fees to restore faith in FSG's entire project

After the midweek loss to PSG, Prime Video pundit Daniel Sturridge was visibly annoyed by the suggestion that Liverpool would go into Sunday's Merseyside derby as underdogs. But Wayne Rooney wasn't mischief-making when he claimed that it had been a long time since his fellow Evertonians had approached the fixture with such confidence - and that's primarily because their city rivals don't appear to have any.

It's all a far cry from the first derby of the season. When Liverpool last played Everton back on September 20, the Reds were seemingly in a very good place, top of the Premier League, and with a 100 percent record. Consequently, a 2-1 victory over their city rivals only heightened the sense of excitement among the fans.

Granted, Liverpool had yet to produce a convincing 90-minute performance but Ekitike had continued his better-than-expected start to the season with a first derby goal, while Isak had picked up some valuable minutes off the bench as the Swede continued to work his way up to full fitness after missing pre-season due to his summer strike at Newcastle.

Although Wirtz had started on the bench due to a forgivably difficult acclimation to the rigours of English football, his performance in the Champions League win over Atletico four days previously had showcased his world-class creativity.

Further success under Slot thus felt more probable than possible at that point, with the argument being, if Liverpool were winning all their games without playing particularly well, they would start sweeping opponents aside once all of the new signings all settled.

Liverpool didn't belatedly click, though. They capitulated.

Liverpool have played 27 league games since beating Everton at Anfield. They've won only 10 - as many as they've lost - and a team that ran away with last season's title is now hoping to limp home in fifth place to secure a badly-needed spot in next season's Champions League.

There are obviously many reasons for Liverpool's dramatic decline. Although Alexis Mac Allister stated this week that he doesn't believe the death of Diogo Jota explains "why this year has been so difficult for us", we'll probably never fully know the true impact of that trauma upon the players.

It's also difficult to gauge from the outside what kind of effect Mohamed Salah's spat with Slot had on the dressing room. What we can say for certain is that the Egyptian's unexpected dip in productivity severely undermined Liverpool's hopes of challenging for major honours this season - not least because nobody else proved themselves capable of picking up the slack.

Ekitike and Dominik Szoboszlai certainly can't be faulted for their efforts during this most trying of campaigns. The France international became the first player since Kenny Dalglish to score in five different competitions in his first season at Liverpool while racking up 17 goals across the board, including 11 in the league.

Szoboszlai, meanwhile, responded to criticism of his output by hitting double figures for the first time since arriving at Anfield from Leipzig in the summer of 2023, while at the same time continuing to play with an energy and dynamism that has been sorely lacking in the likes of Mac Allister, whose regression has been as mystifying as it has been damaging.

As a result, a multi-talented midfielder expected to serve as an understudy to Wirtz has been regularly picked ahead of the £100 million signing in the No.10 role and is now widely regarded as the only legitimate contender for Liverpool's Player of the Season award.

In fairness to Wirtz, he has an ability to create chances for team-mates and excite the supporters like few other players in the Liverpool squad. There have also been games in which the Germany international didn't just live up the hype, he also offered hope as to what the future might bring - particularly in terms of his relationship with Ekitike.

For the most part, Liverpool have been tough to watch this season, but Wirtz's interplay with the Frenchman was a joy to behold at times - most notably in the 4-1 rout of Newcastle at the end of January.

We also got a glimpse of what Wirtz and Isak could do together in the 2-1 victory at Tottenham Hotspur in December when the No.9 tucked away a through ball from the attacking midfielder.

But that's all it was, a glimpse, as a wild challenge from Micky van de Ven broke Isak's leg just seconds after he'd scored - and, thus, ruled him out of action for four months just when it appeared he'd kickstarted his campaign.

In that context, one can somewhat understand Slot's willingness to put Isak in the same side as Wirtz and Ekitike against PSG on Tuesday night. Due to the Swede being out of shape, and thus out of form, from the moment he moved to Merseyside, he'd only previously played 88 minutes alongside his fellow summer signings.

Unfortunately, they only managed another 30 because of Ekitike's most untimely injury - and the potentially awesome attacking triumvirate may not even add to that tally before the end of next season.

What kind of state Liverpool are in by the time he's ready to return to action is also anyone's guess at this stage.

Slot argued on Tuesday night that Liverpool had proven that they could "compete" with Paris Saint-Germain - but they weren't meant to merely compete with PSG this year, they were meant to beat them, and even though there were positives to take from their spell of superiority after half-time, there was simply no hiding the fact the gap between the two teams has actually widened since last season - not closed.

The scorelines say it all. Less than a year after being beaten on penalties by PSG, Liverpool lost 4-0 on aggregate to pretty much the same side - despite spending roughly £450 million ($606m) in the transfer market. Of course, money never guarantees success but it always raises expectations and the most recent arrivals haven't even come close to meeting them.

Teenage defender Giovanni Leoni was desperately unlucky to suffer a season-ending injury last September but Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong haven't proved anything like Liverpool's answer to Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi, Alisson's supposed successor, Giorgi Mamardashvili, remains worryingly uncomfortable with the ball at his feet, Wirtz is not influencing big games anywhere near as much as he should be, while Isak's Anfield career has yet to get to going.

Ekitike really has been the only success story from last summer's historic spending spree and with him now gone for at least the rest of the year, it's hard not to be sceptical about the team's supposedly “bright future” - particularly with Salah and Andy Robertson leaving, Virgil van Dijk seemingly in decline, and Slot struggling to convey to the rest of us what it is he's trying to do with this particular set of players.

Were a still-lacklustre Liverpool also to fail to qualify for next season's Champions League, FSG's CEO of football Michael Edwards and the club's sporting director Richard Hughes would only find it even more difficult to complete an overhaul that was criminally left unfinished last summer by failing to replace Luis Diaz and bring in Marc Guehi to compete for a starting spot with an out-of-contract Ibrahima Konate.

There really aren't that many top-class players on the market right now, which is why so many clubs are being linked with the same names while extortionate figures are being bandied about for unproven players. The promising young centre-back Jeremy Jacquet may already be on his way from Rennes (for mad money) but Ekitike's lengthy absence, coupled with Cody Gakpo's goal drought, means that Liverpool will need to buy another forward while at the same time pulling off the seemingly impossible task of finding a worthy Salah successor.

In that context, Liverpool really cannot afford to miss out on the money and pulling power that Champions League football allows a buyer to bring to the negotiating table - but it's a real possibility right now.

The Reds have six games remaining and three of them are against top-five rivals: Manchester United (away), Chelsea (home) and Aston Villa (away). Worse still, their run-in begins with the first derby at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, where Everton will be desperate to boost their own European aspirations by inflicting more misery on their Merseyside rivals.

Given the significance of the fixture, their opponents' recent form and their position in the table, a draw wouldn't be a disaster for Liverpool - but this feels like a must-win game for everyone connected to the club. Because the supporters aren't just questioning the coach, they're questioning the entire project.

There may have been all sorts of mitigating circumstances (some of the injuries have been incredibly unfortunate) but this season hasn't been anywhere near good enough, which is why the majority of supporters have been left utterly bewildered by reports that Slot's services will be retained even if Liverpool finish outside the top five.

It's also been claimed that despite links with Saudi Arabia, Edwards and Hughes won't be going anywhere this summer either, meaning the key figures at the club responsible for a calamitous campaign will be allowed to try to turn things around next season.

If that's the case, Edwards and Hughes could really do with the squad they assembled sprouting some shoots of promise in the next few weeks - because, based on last summer's business, it's hard to be optimistic about the Reds' recruitment team adequately filling the glaring holes in the squad, while at the same time finding an adequate replacement for Ekitike during the upcoming transfer window - particularly with Slot continuing to insist that Liverpool are "a trading club".

As a result, a side that looked a sure thing for this season's title now finds itself shrouded in uncertainty after weakening the squad from a position of real strength.

The fans are, thus, in dire need of something to look forward to if they're to put this shambolic season behind them. As Wirtz told the club's official website on Tuesday night, "We have to play [in the] Champions League next year, we owe this to the club and to the fans." And nobody has a bigger debt to pay than Wirtz and Isak.

They can't be held accountable for the failings of those above them, and they've both been unfortunate, in the sense that Slot doesn't appear to know how to get the best out of Wirtz, while Isak's injury issues have been unrelenting. Neither man was responsible for setting their transfer fees either. But it's still high time that they justified them.

Wirtz and Isak were the poster boys of FSG's new project at Anfield; rightly or wrongly, the onus is now very much on them to show that it's still worth supporting.

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