Alexander Isak has sent a stark reminder to all Liverpool fans as he scored Sweden’s only goal in their World Cup warm-up match against Norway.
Isak’s goal showed all the skills that excited Liverpool fans ahead of his transfer last summer, and all the attributes that Liverpool didn’t get to see during his debut season at Anfield.
The goal showed an incredible mixture of pace, strength, power and of course, his finishing. These are skills that, with a little bit of space to work with, Andoni Iraola could get the best out of Isak and potentially even in a rotational system that can see him drift onto the left.
Missing pieces in Liverpool’s squad
Andoni Iraola plays a strong counter-pressing and counterattacking style, and this goal for Isak shows his ability to play in a system that would suit this. Liverpool losing Trent Alexander-Arnold last summer would be a key missing piece in this style of play. His ability to play a diagonal ball from deep could set up scenarios like this for Liverpool’s attackers.
Liverpool’s best player in this scenario in the current squad would either be Virgil van Dijk or Dominik Szoboszlai. Their controlled passing over long distances is unmatched in the current squad, but their passing angles in their current positions aren’t particularly set up to play this type of ball on the counter-attack.
Isak is a striker who shows his best when he sees more of the ball. Getting Isak on the ball is something that he struggled with under Slot, due to the managerial style and also struggles with fitness. As pointed out by Tom Little, Isak had more touches in this goal sequence than he did in eight appearances throughout the season. This was more than one-third of the 22 games he played for Liverpool this year in all competitions.
Isak’s struggles in 2025/26
Isak had a difficult time in his first year at Anfield. After his elongated transfer saga with Newcastle, he came to Liverpool with little to no preseason fitness. This took time to develop, and every time he seemed to get fit, he would pick up some form of injury. This makes the urge from Liverpool fans for Isak to stay fully fit for next season.
Isak was starting to look fit in the game against Spurs, where he came off the bench at half-time. Just 10 minutes after coming on, he scored a great and instinctive finish, but a sliding Van de Ven challenge broke Isak’s ankle.
Isak scored only three goals in the Premier League, but when you consider that he only played 714 minutes, his 238 minutes per goal were a reasonable enough return rate. This was the same scoring frequency rate as Bryan Mbeumo, who has been considered a positive signing for Manchester United this season.
