Isak can live up to 'like a new signing' cliché thanks to Iraola
Alexander Isak is in line to benefit from a far more helpful tactical environment at Liverpool this season.
There is no less popular declaration among football fans than the claim that a player already at their club can be ‘like a new signing’ in the coming season.
But in the case of Alexander Isak and Liverpool, is there really anything else that can be said?
It certainly felt for the majority of the Swede’s debut campaign at Anfield that he had not been signed at all, as a tally of 1,032 minutes and four goals across all competitions attests.
As such, he is uniquely positioned among the squad to make a vast improvement this time around, not least because of his undoubted quality.
Clearly, staying fit will be key to that, and Isak will need to be carefully managed through a long season in which a lot will be demanded from him by an intense brand of football.
But, if that admittedly large hurdle is cleared, then the striker stands to benefit from being given a far better platform than he was whenever actually on the pitch last term.
That is because Andoni Iraola’s vertical football is a strong match with the Newcastle sides in which Isak announced himself as one of the best forwards in the world.
Crucially, it is also a clear contrast with the more sedate style favoured by Arne Slot, whose struggles to get the best out of the 26-year-old weren’t solely fitness-related.
Even in Liverpool’s title-winning year under the Dutchman, one of his biggest issues was getting the centre-forward involved in play, as could be seen in Darwin Nunez going from averaging 4.75 shots per 90 in the Premier League under Jurgen Klopp to 2.7 under Slot.
And, while that never felt hugely costly when Luis Diaz was operating there as a makeshift false nine, the same could not be said after a centre-forward who was supposed to be the focal point of a new-look attack was brought in for £125m.
In his last Newcastle season, Isak averaged 36.8 touches per 90 (52nd percentile among Premier League strikers) and 6.86 touches in the box (88th percentile) as he helped Eddie Howe’s side punch above their weight.
Yet at Liverpool, this plummeted to 23 touches per 90 (second percentile) and 3.8 in the box (16th percentile) - hardly the conditions to score and set up plenty of goals.
