I think it is now becoming very clear, that the Newcastle United medical team worked wonders with Alexander Isak.
Liverpool spending more money than any Premier League club has ever spent, an astonishing £130m, on a player who can’t/won’t even make himself available.
Alexander Isak missed last night’s battering by Aston Villa due to yet another ‘minor injury issue’ preventing him playing, preventing him even being available on the bench.
As Liverpool see their Champions League hopes potentially slipping away, Arne Slot said after defeat at Aston Villa that he has no idea if Alexander Isak will be available for their final match against Brentford next Sunday.
Liverpool have played 56 matches so far this season and Alexander Isak has only started 13 of them.
Obviously he had his broken fibula but both before and after that injury, it all feels very familiar for Newcastle United fans.
Alexander Isak said to have a minor injury issue that keeps him out of matches, minor injury issues that keep happening.
I think it felt at Newcastle United that with Alexander Isak it was as much a mental thing as a physical one when it came to missing matches. Isak making himself unavailable, can’t/won’t play.
The very end of last season kind of summed him up. Out of the blue Alexander Isak not available for the final away match at Arsenal when United were going for second place, a host of chances created in that first half and if only a quality striker had been available…Arsenal fluking it 1-0 with a long range Rice effort.
The following week, last day of the season and a win would guarantee Champions League football, yet such a lackadaisical performance from Alexander Isak as United lost 1-0 to Everton, Isak looking like he would rather have been anywhere else but on that pitch.
This had happened previously, in between the good and indeed great times, Alexander Isak suddenly unavailable and/or putting in lacklustre performances out of the blue.
Arne Slot after last night’s Villa defeat asked about the (yet again) absent Alexander Isak: “We have tried to be as careful as we could with him, taking into account that our other number nine, Hugo Ekitike, is out for such a long time, so we needed him as a result of that even more. It’s just a bit of bad luck for him that in the moment of time when he comes back, Hugo gets injured and we need him more. I expect him to train with us this week but I cannot give any guarantees [Alexander Isak will be available for the Brentford match].”
That £130m Liverpool invested on such a fragile character, looking an ever more staggering amount of cash.
I have also seen people questioning whether there are hints of the ‘Michael Owens’ now, possibly Alexander Isak mugging Liverpool off, just interested now in making sure he is okay for Sweden in the World Cup. After all, he will be in his 30s by the time the next World Cup comes round and no guarantees that Sweden would even qualify for that, especially considering how they fluked it this time.
What I am getting from all of this is that the Newcastle United medical team worked miracles with Alexander Isak. Eddie Howe as well, in terms of physically and mentally getting him to play so many times for United.
When you consider Alexander Isak played in 42 of Newcastle United’s 48 matches last (2024/25) season, it feels a massive surprise now when looking at the stats.
Isak started 34 Premier League matches, 41 in all competitions.
Only Bruno Guimaraes and Dan Burn started more. Bruno starting all 38 Premier League matches last season, 42 in all, whilst for Burn it was 37 PL matches started and 44 in total.
Imagine…
For almost the entire summer, it looked like Alexander Isak was going to be staying at Newcastle United.
The Newcastle United owners refusing to sell him and that ended up totally sabotaging Eddie Howe’s pre-season preparations.
Imagine if they had carried out that threat and not waited until deadline day to do that total u-turn.
Alexander Isak making clear he isn’t interested in putting himself out for Liverpool, so just imagine what he would have been like if he had been forced to stay at Newcastle United this season?!!!
Now that we are far more aware of what he is like, his true character, I reckon every chance he would have continued his strike into this season, refusing to train or play for Newcastle United.
Even if he had called off his strike, exactly how many matches would he have ended up playing and just as importantly, what effort and end product would there have been?
Remember, Alexander Isak scored only six La Liga goals in the season before Newcastle United bought him.
Eddie Howe built his team and tactics around him and it all worked brilliantly overall.
Newcastle United and their fans saw the best of Alexander Isak and I think Liverpool at best are going to have the Alexander Isak who was a decent striker but no more at Real Sociedad.