Alexander Isak Under Pressure at Liverpool After Disappointing Return
Alexander Isak has reached the stage every big-money striker dreads. The sympathy is fading. The scrutiny is not.
That is the reality when you cost £125m and lead the line for Liverpool. At this club, a centre-forward is measured in goals long before anyone mentions context, caveats or mitigation.
After Liverpool’s trip to St James’ Park, the verdict from Michael Owen on talkSPORT cut straight through the noise.
“I know how hard it is to get back and you do need time. He has been given plenty of time – he finished the season in the team, then went to the World Cup and has had a pre-season.
“Now he is starting to run out of excuses. We need to see the real Isak. We saw how good he can be at Newcastle, but we haven’t seen it in a red shirt yet. Questions will come now. At the start of the season, there are expectations, and Liverpool need him. [Mo] Salah has gone, [Hugo] Ekitike is out, and he needs to deliver. Against Newcastle, he was a yard off it, and that is worrying. He is the big-money signing, and I can't say he played well because he didn't.”
Blunt. But accurate. This is elite football; there is no soft landing at the top end of the Premier League.
Isak’s first year at Anfield, scarred by a broken leg and four lost months, earned him patience and understanding. Timing goes, rhythm disappears, confidence wobbles when a season is ripped apart like that. Yet every grace period has an expiry date. Liverpool look very close to his.
A Flat Return to St James’ Park
His comeback at St James’ Park was always going to be emotionally loaded. The jeers were inevitable, the hostility guaranteed, the storyline obvious: the former hero returning as the £125m man in red.
Strip all of that away and the performance still disappoints.
Isak lasted the full 90 minutes but never truly bent the game to his will. There were spells when Liverpool’s supply line deserted him, when the passes into him lacked quality or imagination. That matters. A striker cannot finish chances that never arrive.
But the very best do more than wait for service. They bully defenders. They stretch backlines. They turn half-chances into goals and bad balls into problems.
Isak did not do enough of that.
He registered a couple of efforts on target and held his own physically in duels, yet the overall impression was of a player slightly off the pace. His passing was loose, his combinations slow, his movement not quite sharp enough to trouble Newcastle in the way Liverpool need from their No 9.
The numbers will show involvement. The eye test said something else: underwhelming, again.
No More Hiding Behind Context
The bigger picture only tightens the pressure. Liverpool’s margin for error in attack has shrunk.
Hugo Ekitike is sidelined until the end of 2026. Mohamed Salah has gone. That is a huge chunk of goals, gravity and attacking certainty ripped out of the side. Under Andoni Iraola, Liverpool will play with aggression and directness, pressing high and breaking quickly, but no tactical framework can finish chances on its own.
Strikers decide games.
Isak’s record at Newcastle – 62 goals in 109 matches – proves he has the tools. Nobody is questioning whether the talent exists. The question is when Liverpool will see that version of him on a consistent basis.
At 26, he is not a project or a prospect. He is supposed to be the finished article. Liverpool did not invest £125m in a long-term experiment. They paid for a proven match-winner. At some point, the fee becomes part of the judgement because the fee reflects the responsibility.
Right now, that responsibility is outweighing the return.
Nottingham Forest Becomes a Marker
On paper, a home game against Nottingham Forest at Anfield this early in the campaign should be routine. Instead, it now carries a weight it was never meant to have. That is what happens when a marquee signing underperforms in a high-profile fixture. The narrative speeds up.
For Isak, the escape route is brutally simple.
- Move more intelligently.
- Link play quicker.
- Attack the box with conviction.
- When the chance finally comes, take it.
One clean finish can change everything – the mood in the stands, the tone of the punditry, the noise around his price tag.
Until that happens, the questions Owen voiced will only grow louder.
From a Liverpool perspective, this is a delicate balance. Perspective is needed; panic is not. Isak was poor at Newcastle, and there is no sense in pretending otherwise. He lacked sharpness, he never truly unsettled the home defence, and for a striker of his calibre, that must change fast.
At the same time, Liverpool did not exactly pepper him with clear openings. When an attack misfires, the centre-forward usually takes the first hit, fair or not. Supporters will forgive a lot if they see relentless work, smart movement and visible belief. Those things still count on the Kop.
Timing, though, is everything. With Ekitike out long term and Salah gone, Liverpool cannot ease their main striker in. Iraola needs his No 9 to become the focal point now – pressing hard, running hard, finishing ruthlessly.
If Isak finds the net against Nottingham Forest, the storm quietens and the conversation shifts. If he doesn’t, how long before patience at Anfield turns into something else entirely?
