{"id":346732,"date":"2025-08-15T14:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346732\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T14:22:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:22:15","slug":"merson-tells-reds-to-forget-isak-and-worry-about-one-star-after-bad-wembley-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346732\/","title":{"rendered":"Merson tells Reds to forget Isak and &#8216;worry&#8217; about one star after &#8216;bad&#8217; Wembley display"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal legend Paul Merson thinks Liverpool should be looking to sign another centre-back before worrying about signing Alexander Isak from Newcastle.<\/p>\n<p>The Reds are looking to bring in more players before the end of the transfer window on September 1 after signing six so far this summer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/every-premier-league-transfer-release-completed-summer-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez have already come through the door this summer<\/strong><\/a> with all four playing as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/liverpool\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Liverpool<\/strong><\/a> lost the Community Shield final on penalties to Crystal Palace at Wembley on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Liverpool face Bournemouth on Friday night in the first Premier League match of the season and Merson reckons they should be focusing on bringing in another new centre-back and not a deal for Isak.<\/p>\n<p>The Reds are on the verge of signing Parma centre-back Giovanni Leoni, while they are also interested in Crystal Palace\u2019s Marc Guehi to strengthen their defence.<\/p>\n<p>Merson insists Liverpool must get Guehi or another centre-back in before they turn their attention to Newcastle striker Isak.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/summer-transfer-rumours-power-ranking-arsenal-liverpool-man-utd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Transfer rumour ranking: Defender to join Liverpool, Forest splurge, Brentford agree record deal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11095\/13410582\/paul-merson-says-forget-alexander-isak-liverpool-need-to-sign-a-centre-back\" target=\"_blank\">Merson told Sky Sports<\/a>: \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of noise surrounding the potential deal to sign Isak, suggesting they will romp to the title if they sign the striker from Newcastle. I hear a lot of people saying that if Liverpool get Isak it\u2019s game over in the Premier League. It\u2019s finished.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just don\u2019t see them winning the league as a foregone conclusion, Isak or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I was Liverpool, I\u2019d be looking more for a centre back than Isak. That has to be the priority for Slot, whose main centre-back options are Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mohamed Salah was largely anonymous against Palace in the Community Shield and Merson reckons it was a \u201cworrying performance\u201d from Liverpool\u2019s leading star.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE LIVERPOOL COVERAGE ON F365\u2026<\/strong><br \/>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/newcastle-deluded-fanbase-alexander-isak-mailbox\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Mailbox: Newcastle have \u2018deluded fanbase\u2019 as Alexander Isak \u2018deserves\u2019 Liverpool move<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/premier-league-preview-man-utd-arsenal-chelsea-wirtz-eddie-howe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Big Weekend: Man Utd v Arsenal, Chelsea, Florian Wirtz and Eddie Howe<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/feature-ranking-best-premier-league-signings-of-the-summer-wirtz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Wirtz, Gyokeres, Mbeumo: Top 10 Premier League signings of the 2025 summer transfer window<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Merson added: \u201cIt was a bit of a worrying performance from Salah at Wembley. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen a player play that badly before in a football match.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Frimpong playing with Salah, Merson continued:\u00a0\u201cOne thing that might be difficult for him this season is playing in front of Jeremie Frimpong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompared to Trent Alexander-Arnold, he\u2019s more like an attacking winger. Frimpong\u2019s a good player but he\u2019s not a destroyer. He plays so far forward that he\u2019s not a natural defender. Trent wasn\u2019t either but the same thing applies really, I think Ibrahima Konate could be too exposed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a major problem down that side of the pitch, even more so than last season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/opinion-arne-slot-pressure-liverpool-transfer-window-flatter-deceive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Arne Slot under huge pressure at Liverpool after a transfer window which has flattered to deceive<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal legend Paul Merson thinks Liverpool should be looking to sign another centre-back before worrying about signing Alexander&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[9261,748,393,4884,225,179,1128,12,9683,101,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-346732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-alexander-isak","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-mohamed-salah","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-paul-merson","17":"tag-premier-league","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115033233389023602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}