Alexander Isak: Liverpool's Key Player in New Season

Andoni Iraola is under no illusions about Alexander Isak. The Liverpool head coach knows the Swede will score. The challenge 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 Liverpool’s only recognised centre-forward. His importance is obvious. So is the risk.

Last season at Anfield never really got going for him. His debut campaign was shredded by injury: just 12 starts in 22 appearances, four goals, and only one of those after he broke his leg at Tottenham just before Christmas. For a player of his talent, it was a stop-start, frustrating year.

This time, Iraola wants a very different story.

“Alex is going to be a very important player for us this season,” the Spaniard 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, in Iraola’s mind, are almost a given if Isak stays on the pitch. The work is in everything around them.

Probably the most intriguing piece of Liverpool’s attacking puzzle is his link with Florian Wirtz. Restored to his natural No. 10 role after being shuffled around under former boss Arne Slot, Wirtz will operate just behind Isak, looking to combine, slide passes and drag defenders out of position. That relationship could define Liverpool’s attacking identity this season.

Iraola, though, wants Isak to think beyond the penalty box.

“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,” he 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.”

Pressing, movement, angles for the No. 10 and wingers – Iraola is demanding a modern centre-forward, not just a poacher.

If Isak needed extra motivation, it arrives on day one. Liverpool open their Premier League campaign on Sunday at Newcastle, the club he left under a cloud. His exit, effectively going on strike last summer to force through the move to Anfield, guarantees a hostile reception at St James’ Park.

Iraola, though, refused 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 the scenes, the squad picture sharpens the focus on Isak’s fitness. Ekitike is unlikely to return before the new year. Recruitment, meanwhile, is pointed towards the flanks rather than the middle. Liverpool have already seen a second bid of £60million for Brighton winger Yankubu Minteh rejected, underlining where the club believes the market value lies.

That leaves Iraola weighing up contingency plans through the middle.

Cody Gakpo is the obvious in-house alternative. He played centrally at times for Jurgen Klopp and has been loosely linked with a surprise move to Tottenham despite Liverpool’s lack of forwards. For now, though, Iraola has kept him wide.

“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,” Iraola 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.”

So the picture is clear. Liverpool will go into the new season with Isak as the undisputed spearhead, Wirtz feeding him, and Gakpo on standby as an emergency No. 9 if required.

The system, the recruitment, the tactical tweaks – all of it leans on one simple truth: Liverpool cannot afford another season where Alexander Isak is a story of what might have been.