Arne Slot has conceded Liverpool are not bringing the best out of Alexander Isak and must maximise their record signing’s strengths in the manner Manchester City do with Erling Haaland.
The £125m striker scored his first Premier League goal for Liverpool in last Sunday’s win at West Ham but was unable to build on that breakthrough against Sunderland on Wednesday. Isak had another quiet game. Slot has repeatedly defended the Swede’s slow start as an inevitable consequence of missing pre-season with Newcastle, when he in effect went on strike to force his exit, but Liverpool’s head coach admits his team are also culpable for the player’s problems.
“He is not the only No 9 who suffers in some games from not getting many chances,” said Slot, who has Conor Bradley back from injury for Saturday’s trip to Leeds. “At this level it’s not like the No 9 is involved in eight, nine, 10 chances every single half. But it is obvious and clear that we want to bring him into more threatening situations.
“Before we went to only one goal conceded in two games [West Ham and Sunderland] we had a lot of chances. Because we are a little bit more compact and not taking as many risks, we have not been able to create as many chances as all of the games before. It is definitely one of the things on my list of things to improve to get our No 9 more involved in the game and more involved in the final third.”
Isak has averaged only 14 touches per game in his last three starts for Liverpool but Slot insists it is where he touches the ball, not how often, that counts. “Do you know how many times he touched the ball at Newcastle on average? Twenty-two,” he said (it was 36.8 last season according to Opta). “In this league strikers don’t touch the ball that much but a few times they do touch it, it’s quite nice if they finish it off. I have no clue what the stats of Haaland are but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t touch it 100 times a game, but he does score a lot. It is more important that they touch the ball in the right times than to touch it so many times. Haaland touches it much more where it matters and that’s where we need to improve. It is clear and obvious.”
Isak’s match fitness remains an issue problem and Slot admitted it is still “unrealistic” to expect the Sweden international to complete three 90-minute games in a week. He played 68 and 86 minutes against West Ham and Sunderland respectively. “That’s not the way you want to start your career at Liverpool,” he said the Dutchman. “It is far, far from an ideal situation but, again, this club doesn’t buy a player for half a year. We bought him for six years.”
Slot believes the absence of an orthodox winger at Liverpool and the rising trend of Premier League teams defending in a low block have added to Isak’s difficulties at his new club. “With Jeremie Frimpong being injured and Conor Bradley being out it is not like we have so many options on the right-hand side, and it is a bit similar on the left,” he added the head coach. “Alex could benefit maybe from a Conor or a Jeremie type of player who goes outside, instead of both wingers we have who come inside and full-backs who can come in with crosses.
“But the main difference for him is that we are facing a low block many times. It is not that it never happened at Newcastle but not as much, I think. This season the league has changed, we see so many more low blocks than last season. But I see this not only against us, I see this in many games. It makes it harder for him compared to his time at Newcastle but I think it is also him adjusting to his teammates and his teammates adjusting to him. But it is obvious and clear that we have not the profile of [Newcastle’s] Jacob Murphy, for example, available at this moment at this time.”
