Andoni Iraola's Vision for Alexander Isak at Liverpool
Andoni Iraola is under no illusions about Alexander Isak. The Liverpool head coach knows the Swede will score. The job now is turning his No. 9 into a creator as well as a finisher.
With Hugo Ekitike still sidelined after Achilles surgery and Mohamed Salah gone, Isak stands alone as the club’s only recognised centre-forward. That makes his role – and his fitness – non-negotiable.
Last season showed the risks. His debut campaign at Anfield never really got going, wrecked by injuries that limited him to 12 starts in 22 appearances and just four goals. Only one of those came after he broke his leg at Tottenham just before Christmas. Liverpool signed a thoroughbred and spent most of the year watching him from the treatment room.
This time, Iraola wants the full package.
“Alex is going to be a very important player for us this season,” he said. “Right now he is in a very good place; he has been training every day, he has not missed a session, he has been adding more and more minutes every friendly game.
“He played a very good World Cup in terms of availability, fitness level, and I want to keep him there as much as we can.
“We know his level and if we can keep him there he will score the goals and give us a lot of things.”
The goals, though, are only half the story.
Iraola is drilling Isak on the less glamorous details: movement without the ball, pressing angles, and how to drag defenders into places they don’t want to go so others can exploit the gaps.
“Probably my fight with him, my instructions, are more in terms of without the ball and how he can help in his position when we are with the ball so he can open spaces for other players,” Iraola explained. “I am not trying to focus in terms of goals but he is a striker, he will want to score, but I try not to judge the strikers if they score or if they haven't.”
The link-up with Florian Wirtz could define Liverpool’s attacking identity under Iraola. Restored to his natural No. 10 role after being shuffled around by former boss Arne Slot, Wirtz will be the creative brain between the lines. Isak’s ability to drop in, combine, and then spin in behind gives that partnership teeth. If it clicks, Liverpool suddenly look far less short-handed up front.
And then there is the backdrop to opening day.
On Sunday, Isak walks straight into a storm: the season opener at Newcastle, his former club, where he is guaranteed a ferocious reception after effectively going on strike last summer to force through his move to Anfield. It is the kind of occasion that can rattle a forward or sharpen him.
Iraola chose not to fan the flames.
“I suppose it is always special when you play against your ex-team in their stadium – in the same way when I go back to Bournemouth you always want to do well,” he said. “The first game of the season everyone will be very motivated and I think it is going to be the same for Alex.”
Behind Isak, the depth chart is thin. Very thin.
With Ekitike unlikely to return before the new year and the club pushing hard for wide players – a second bid of £60 million for Brighton’s Yankubu Minteh has already been turned down – Iraola has to map out a contingency plan at centre-forward.
Cody Gakpo is the obvious internal solution. The Dutchman has been loosely linked with a surprise move to Tottenham, a notion that jars with Liverpool’s lack of attacking options, and he has already shown under Jurgen Klopp that he can operate as a central striker.
So far in pre-season, though, Iraola has resisted the temptation to move him.
“In pre-season we haven't tried as we don't have enough wingers and we prioritised what we need from him in his preferred position as a left-winger,” the Liverpool boss said.
“But I have been talking to him about his minutes as a nine; he has done it before and in certain situations he could help us in the nine position.”
For now, the plan is simple. Keep Isak fit. Keep him sharp. Turn a pure finisher into the focal point of an evolving attack.
Newcastle away will show how ready he really is.
