Former Newcastle United goalkeeper Tim Krul has had his say on Alexander Isak’s slow start to his Liverpool career following the striker’s £125m transfer to Anfield
Alexander Isak has been all but ruled out of Liverpool’s Premier League clash against Aston Villa(Image: (Photo by Matt West/Shutterstock))
Tim Krul believes Alexander Isak’s below-par start to his Liverpool career is ‘karma’ for the way he forced his way out of Newcastle United. The Sweden international essentially went on strike to ensure the Magpies would follow through on alleged promises to let him leave St. James’ Park.
The striker trained on his own for the majority of the summer and failed to feature for Newcastle throughout pre-season. As a result, he was left playing catch-up after belatedly completing a British record £125m switch to Liverpool on transfer deadline day.
Isak is yet to live up to his hefty price tag though following his disjointed summer, and has returned just one goal and one assist from his first eight appearances for the Reds. Yet to score in the Premier League, he is set to miss Liverpool’s clash with Aston Villa on Saturday because of a groin injury, having been forced off at half-time in the Reds’ Champions League win over Eintracht Frankfurt earlier this month.
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Former Newcastle goalkeeper Krul insists there were no winners in the Isak transfer saga, though he is glad to see his former club move on without the forward – with his replacement, Nick Woltemade taking no time to settle at St. James’ Park. And having seen Marc Guehi enjoy a strong season for Crystal Palace to date after not forcing through his own move to Liverpool, Krul pointed to ‘karma’ when offering his take on Isak’s struggles.
“There were no winners in that situation,” he said on talkSPORT, as quoted by Newcastle World. “It’s a shame it took that long to sort.
“I think Eddie Howe wanted his squad to be complete a lot earlier. And it has, especially you could see the start of Newcastle the first few games, they didn’t score.
“And you could see there was a transition moment there. But £125million for a player is a good deal.
“So everybody should be, you know what, we’ll move on. We’ve got a great bit of money, we’ll sign some top, top players to replace him.
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“The generation has changed a bit. I wouldn’t have liked a player to play this kind of act.
“Reading the interviews after, I think there was a kind of respect to the player. It should have been dealt differently.
“For me, I believe in values and karma. I think you know how you treat people, you get paid back.
“Mark Guehi is a captain, he’s a role model and he will get his move. That will set him in great stead hopefully for the World Cup.”
Isak is also at risk of missing out on World Cup qualification with Sweden, with his country bottom of their qualification group ahead of the November international break, while Liverpool have dropped to seventh in the Premier League table after losing six of their last seven games in all competitions.