Steve Nicol delivered a damning quip about one Liverpool player following the 1-1 draw against Sunderland on Wednesday night.
It was yet another frustrating day at Anfield for the Reds, who needed a late Nordi Mukiele own goal and a heroic stoppage-time block from Federico Chiesa just to salvage a point against Regis Le Bris’ side.
The ex-LFC defender accused Virgil van Dijk of not leading by example during the match, and he was also left ‘disappointed’ by the performance of Alexander Isak against the Black Cats, albeit with some sympathy for the Swedish striker.
Nicol: Isak was ‘invisible’ against Sunderland
In his post-match reflections on ESPN FC, Nicol described the £125m marksman as ‘invisible’ last night, though he believes that the 26-year-old also needs more help from his teammates.
The pundit said: “Anybody who watches Isak right now is disappointed in the way he’s performing, but your centre-forward relies on others more than anybody else, and he’s getting absolutely nothing.
“I don’t remember one chance that Liverpool had in this game – or the last three, four, five games – where you’re saying they should’ve scored…from that point of view, I do still feel a little bit for [Florian] Wirtz and Isak.
“I think the majority of the blame lies elsewhere, but I can’t argue with what you said. He was absolutely invisible. I actually forgot he was playing at one stage in the second half.”
Liverpool need more from Isak
Having finally opened his Premier League scoring account for Liverpool last weekend, Kopites would’ve been hoping that Isak would follow it up with another impactful outing against Sunderland, but sadly that wasn’t the case for the ex-Newcastle striker.
His only shot of note was a first-half effort which was horribly high and wide, and he completed a pitiful two passes in 86 minutes on the pitch, along with giving away three free kicks, losing four of his six duels and touching the ball only 14 times (Sofascore).
While we take Nicol’s point about centre-forwards requiring ample service, the Sweden international allowed the game to pass him by, something he can’t afford to do when he’s cost £125m and still has so much to prove in a red shirt.
He could’ve been excused to some extent in the first few weeks of the season as fitness problems prevented him from striking an on-field chemistry with his teammates, but you’d have hoped to at least see discernible signs of that by now.
Unfortunately, Isak turned in the kind of performance which’d leave him with no complaints if Arne Slot were to bench him in favour of Hugo Ekitike against Leeds on Saturday.
Perhaps the Swede needs more from his teammates in terms of service into the penalty area, but Liverpool also need more from him in terms of his all-round play.
Isak isn’t getting the right service, where is the width in this Liverpool team. Gakpo had lots of the ball, and every time he comes inside and tries to shoot. Isak scored against west ham with a ball out wide which was delivered Into the box. Striker want crosses and balls into the box. The was no service from the other flank, szoboszlai isn’t a winger, even when Salah came on he does what Gakpo does, goes on his own and comes inside and tries to get goals for himself. The full backs don’t get enough crosses, they don’t overlap the wide players. It’s much harder to pick perfect passes through the midfield. I don’t blame Isak it’s the wide players, and slot who’s job it is to coach the players to provide the service for the strikers. When we had Diaz he did provide the width, and he took players on. Put haaland in our team and even he wouldn’t score.
I agree. Isak is not a fit and nor is Frimpong and Kerkez and for that matter Slot for LFC.
If Klopp stayed he would have won the league.
Because of Slots arrogance he broke the team Klopp built.
LFC is too big a club for Slot.
Get rid if him before it is too late.
The money he spent is disgraceful.
Also his back room staff or advisors are clueless.
They all have no passion and are just in it for the money.
#Slot must fall.