Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak had contrasting first seasons at Anfield.

In Arne Slot's first summer at Anfield in 2024, Liverpool bought only Federico Chiesa - yet the Reds won the Premier League title in the season that followed.

In contrast, last summer they splashed out £415m - setting a new record for the amount spent by a club in a window - as Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Giovanni Leoni were signed.

Yet Liverpool finished the season with 24 points fewer than they did last term - the worst season-to-season swing of any team in the league - and none of the summer signings started their last game against Brentford.

Slot expects a "little transition" this summer but nothing "drastic".

After a turbulent season that saw Liverpool confirm Champions League qualification only on the last day, BBC Sport grades each of last summer's signings.

Isak arrived with high expectations after forcing his way out of Newcastle United to join for a record fee of £125m.

But the Sweden striker has endured a year to forget, with a serious ankle injury that included a fibula fracture ruling him out for three months and other smaller issues affecting his availability.

Isak netted 54 goals from 86 appearances in the Premier League for Newcastle but scored just three times in 14 top-flight appearances for Liverpool, albeit six of those games were from off the bench.

"Availability is the best ability", the saying goes, and Liverpool need Isak to play a lot more than the 1,033 minutes he managed in 2025-26, especially with Ekitike out for a long period.

When fit, Isak showed flashes of his class - such as the touch and finish against Crystal Palace - and a prime task for Liverpool next season will be to improve their ability to get their central striker involved in the game.

In 2025-26, it was routinely poor no matter who was in the role.

Wirtz demonstrated glimpses of the reasons Liverpool parted with £116m to sign him last summer - but was not close to the level expected of a player regarded as one of the world's top talents.

He will know his productivity must improve after just seven goals and eight assists - and not one of those was against a side that finished in the top half of the league.

Liverpool will hope a season adapting to life in England and building his physicality will lead to the 23-year-old providing a consistent threat next season in the same way a similar player, Robert Pires, did after a slow start at Arsenal.

His fine performance against a physical Sunderland side on a filthy night in the north east demonstrated what he can do and how he can make Liverpool a better side.

One of the challenges for Slot, assuming he remains in charge, is to decide whether he is best playing off the left or in the number 10 role and to set the side up so it extracts the sort of creativity he displayed so often at Bayer Leverkusen.

It is a B mark that could easily have been a C.

Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak (right) were only on the pitch together for 618 minutes because of injuries.

Ekitike made the biggest impact of the new signings until his season was cut short in April when he ruptured his Achilles tendon.

The France striker scored 17 goals and produced six assists following his £79m move from Eintracht Frankfurt.

The 23-year-old cemented his reputation as one of Europe's most exciting young forwards, although there will be concern at how he recovers from what is a very serious injury.

Ekitike proved himself a good finisher and at times linked the play well, but was a 'moments player' rather than a consistent, finished article.

If he rehabilitates successfully and develops his game after a fine debut season, he seems destined to become one of the world's leading strikers.

Kerkez had a difficult start following his £40m move from Bournemouth and initially shared game time with stalwart Andy Robertson.

However the Hungary left-back played in 34 of the 38 league games - starting 27 of them - to establish himself as the first choice.

Captain Virgil van Dijk said in February that Kerkez is "making big progress" and that it is "pretty clear you definitely see an improvement".

The 22-year-old - still younger than Robertson was when he arrived from Hull City in 2017 - removed some of the initial rashness from his game and was then consistently good defensively.

The task now for Kerkez is to bring some of the attacking verve he was noted for with the Cherries to the Liverpool shirt.

Frimpong arrived from Bayer Leverkusen for a fee of £29.5m and was expected to share the right-back berth with Conor Bradley following the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

However he did not convince in that role, even after he had a free run at it when the Northern Ireland defender was ruled out in January.

Midfielders Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai were used regularly in the position as a result, with the Netherlands player's struggles not helped by regular injuries.

He has pace to burn and at times looked threatening when used further forward but lacked an end product and is unlikely to be viewed as a possible successor to the departing Mohamed Salah.

Frimpong was mainly used as a wing-back at Leverkusen and that role best fits the 25-year-old's skill-set, so where he finds himself playing next season will be interesting.

Leoni arrived for £26m from Parma last summer as one of the biggest talents to emerge in Italy in recent years.

The 19-year-old centre-back impressed on his debut against Southampton in the Carabao Cup in September but an anterior cruciate ligament tear during that game ruled him out for the rest of the campaign.

Having played just 81 minutes, it doesn't feel fair to rate the Italian's season - although in that short time he looked impressively commanding.

Leoni is on track to join pre-season training and Liverpool will hope he has lost none of his mobility during his long period out of action.

Liverpool will believe the Italian and January signing Jeremy Jacquet - another high-priced, highly prized teenager - has their centre-back future sorted out for the next decade.

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