{"id":192527,"date":"2025-09-01T22:11:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T22:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/192527\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T22:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T22:11:13","slug":"understanding-liverpools-record-signing-alexander-isak-he-was-always-looking-for-an-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/192527\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Liverpool\u2019s record-signing Alexander Isak \u2013 \u2018He was always looking for an opportunity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The finish was instinctive, a split-second moment of skill, but then there is all that came before.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the movement, where he sticks on Virgil van Dijk before drawing away as the Dutchman turns his back. There\u2019s the sixth sense, as he reads Jacob Murphy\u2019s intention to nod the ball back across goal. And then there\u2019s the belief, to shoot and score again just minutes after having a goal ruled out.<\/p>\n

They are 10 seconds which demonstrate why Alexander Isak is one of the most coveted players in world football.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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LIMBS \ud83d\ude0d pic.twitter.com\/jEYnkCrS0d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Newcastle United (@NUFC) March 21, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This was the goal that delivered Newcastle United their first domestic trophy in 70 years, and Isak was the man to score it. It was his first major trophy too.<\/p>\n

As the 25-year-old runs away to celebrate, he points his thumb behind him. Done. Next.<\/p>\n

But it is now Newcastle that are in the rearview mirror, and Liverpool, their Carabao Cup final opponents, who pay Isak\u2019s wages.<\/p>\n

With the Anfield club paying \u00a3125m, a deal worth \u00a3130m to Newcastle due to other savings and solidarity payments they are not covering, he is now the most expensive arrival in Premier League history.<\/p>\n

He arrived in Newcastle for \u00a363m three years ago, a highly-rated and talented striker but not marketed as a prodigy. Since, he has hit the Premier League with the force of a tornado, becoming Newcastle\u2019s greatest striker in two decades.<\/p>\n

This is who Liverpool are getting in their new No 9.<\/p>\n

It is right to go back to Isak\u2019s feel and movement for that Carabao Cup final goal, but that began long before that day. Growing up in Solna, a working-class suburb of Stockholm, Isak always separated himself with his brain, despite his preternatural physical gifts.<\/p>\n

Making his debut for boyhood club AIK at just 16, he had already impressed senior professionals at the club with a game understanding which, at times, felt like it eclipsed their own.<\/p>\n

Like Isak, Henok Goitom is another Swede of Eritrean descent. Isak\u2019s father, Teame, taught him the Tigrinya language as a child \u2014 some years later, the veteran striker repaid the debt by mentoring the teenage Isak.<\/p>\n

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Isak at AIK youth training (Alexander Snacke)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the summer (before his debut), he was one of two or three that came to train with us,\u201d Goitom told The Athletic in 2023.<\/a> \u201cWe were doing a drill and I wanted the ball. I was the starting striker and I really wanted it. But he didn\u2019t pass, he gave it to someone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I looked behind me and there was an opponent right there. His intelligence shone through. He was \u2014 not sneaky, that sounds like a negative \u2014 but always looking for an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was smart,\u201d adds Jesper Bjork, Isak\u2019s long-time coach as a young teenager. \u201cHe wants to try to trick defenders into doing stupid things, then move the ball in another direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in hindsight, this is part of the reason why Isak\u2019s first big move to Borussia Dortmund failed.<\/p>\n

Several European giants had been in for him \u2014 Liverpool first expressed interest in him as a 16-year-old, with Real Madrid asking Ronaldo to FaceTime the young Isak in a bid to convince him to join. Dortmund\u2019s record of youth development won out, but Isak struggled for gametime, stuck behind the likes of Marco Reus, Paco Alcacer, Andre Schurrle, and Michy Batshuayi.<\/p>\n

But shorn of opportunities to build up experience, Isak struggled when given rare starts \u2014 it was not until he was given a run of games while on loan at Dutch club Willem II that he began to hit his straps, scoring 13 goals in just 16 appearances.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go into games more relaxed,\u201d Isak told former The Athletic columnist Alan Shearer last year.<\/a> \u201cNot thinking about having to score because you feel like you\u2019re in a flow. But it\u2019s football and this momentum, you can lose it very fast. You need to use all your chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think that spell (at Dortmund) was a failure,\u201d adds Goitom. \u201cBut he was 17. He\u2019d played just one season in the Allsvenskan. It was like playing games even when just training with Dortmund. It was the right step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signed by Real Sociedad for just \u20ac15m in 2019, Isak regained his confidence in the Basque Country. The large spaces afforded to him in La Liga suited his ability to run in behind, while he struck up an excellent partnership with now-Arsenal midfielder Martin Odegaard.<\/p>\n

His record in Spain was impressive \u2014 33 league goals in 105 La Liga appearances \u2014 but has gone to the next level at St James\u2019 Park, with 54 Premier League goals in just 86 games.<\/p>\n

Eddie Howe worked intensively with the striker when he arrived, recognising the importance that a club-record \u00a363m fee was repaid in goals. As one club source told The Athletic in March, Howe was the driving force behind Isak\u2019s recruitment, with the Swedish striker having become something of an \u201cobsession\u201d. To an extent, his own future would be tied to Isak\u2019s form.<\/p>\n

Despite his debut goal at Anfield in August 2022, his debut season was not as smooth as it might have outwardly appeared \u2014 the Swede struggled with several niggling injuries, with Callum Wilson entrenched as the starter for much of the season, including that February\u2019s Carabao Cup final against Manchester United.<\/p>\n

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Isak celebrates scoring on his Premier League debut at Anfield (Photo by Visionhaus\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

One major area was Isak\u2019s off-ball work \u2014 with Newcastle\u2019s high press necessitating that the No 9 plays an important role defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Alex, we try to find a balance between information and freedom,\u201d Eddie Howe told The Athletic last season. \u201cHe\u2019s so creative naturally that putting too many restrictions on where he moves would be a negative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe give him a lot of structure out of possession, that\u2019ll be very clear. We certainly won\u2019t be leaving that to chance \u2014 there is a directive that he has to follow, and he\u2019s done it really well this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the ball, yes, we have a certain way that we play and what we ask him to do, but there is certainly an element of freedom within that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

It shows the trust that Isak has developed. As a teenager at AIK, coaches worried about his coachability \u2014 whether he had the urge of self-improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the only problem he had,\u201d then team-mate Gabriel Aphrem remembered. \u201cHe liked to joke, sometimes too much. His only enemy was himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not that he was unprofessional,\u201d added Peter Wennberg, AIK\u2019s academy chief. \u201cIt was just that there were kids\u2019 habits which needed to transform into professional habits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allied with physical difficulties as he went through a growth spurt, Isak was not a guaranteed starter in the under-13s and under-14s, and was one of only three or four members of his AIK age group who wasn\u2019t selected to play in a countrywide tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I have had tough periods before,\u201d Isak told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in 2017, during his spell at Dortmund.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was dropped to the bench. They thought I didn\u2019t work hard enough and they were right. It was then that I realised this was serious. So that\u2019s when I sorted myself out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Isak playing for AIK in 2016 (Anders Ylander\/Ombrello via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He began doing extras, both inside AIK\u2019s academy and with local coaches from the Eritrean community, while a positional shift also helped him develop a wider skillset. Recognising that Isak could sometimes rely on his speed too much, AIK decided to play him as a midfielder to improve his sense of the bigger picture. Now, his ability in deeper spaces is a major part of his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted him to gain 360-degree awareness,\u201d explains Wennberg. \u201cIt meant he became more involved in the game, put pressure on his first touch, made him contend with more traffic. We saw how he could affect the game in the build-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspects of his academy experience, however, reminded AIK\u2019s coaches that he was still a precocious teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was called up for a national team camp, which started on the Monday, but we had a game against a really local under-19 team the day before,\u201d remembers Wennberg. \u201cIt was an away game, not so fancy, on a suspect pitch south of Stockholm.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I spoke to the national coach and we agreed to play Alex for the first 45 minutes \u2014 he was not going to start the first national team game anyway. But when I told him, he said: \u2018I don\u2019t want to be a part of it\u2019. I told him to trust me and he played \u2014 but he didn\u2019t leave the centre circle for the entire half.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d checked out and we were really angry with him. But then, as soon as he came back, he apologised for not seeing the bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Isak celebrates a win for Sweden (Photo: Alex Nicodim\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In refusing to play, Isak\u2019s behaviour bears some resemblance to his move to Liverpool, almost a decade down the line. There have been no apologies this month.<\/p>\n

But back then, this was a stage where Isak was\u00a0developing quickly \u2014 only just beginning to understand the latent talent in his laces, and earning the right to train with the first-team in preseason under new head coach Andreas Alm. Coachability had become a strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe began to realise that we had a special one,\u201d Wennberg adds. \u201cThe coaches\u2019 office was at the entrance, at the top of the stairs. Every time he\u2019d pass it and just say: \u2018Hi\u2019. There were four or five of us, planning his future, taking care of individual analysis, just for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo one morning I said: \u2018Hey, Isak, come and sit down\u2019. Every coach was sitting there, by the whiteboard. \u2018Everyone here is working 24\/7 for you,\u2019 I said. \u2018And you just pass us and say: \u201cHi\u201d. Next morning, I want you to come in here and ask: \u201cWhat do I need to do to improve today? What is the mission?\u201d\u2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the training and the very next morning, there he was, straight into the coaching room. \u2018Hey coach\u2019, he said. \u2018What is the plan for me today?\u2019 If you really want to be great, you need to be the main star in your own life, to drive it. That\u2019s when I knew he was ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isak\u2019s is a unique personality \u2014 one which is intensely driven, but which can also be construed as laid-back and introverted. His outspokenness in his attempts to leave Newcastle has surprised some observers and caused annoyance at the club, though the striker put that down to \u201cbroken promises\u201d.<\/p>\n

Newcastle denied he had been told he could leave this summer, but before it all turned sour his ambitions had matched that of Howe\u2019s to raise his game and the club.<\/p>\n

Howe\u2019s work has extended to one-on-one sessions \u2014 for example, at the beginning of last season, he delivered a presentation to Isak outlining how more opportunities would come his way if he spent more time in the box.<\/p>\n

Gym work has also become an important part of his routine, as he sought to adapt to the Premier League\u2019s intensity.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be the first one to say, \u2018I don\u2019t love the gym,\u2019 but he\u2019s taken the onus on himself to do the work,\u201d former Newcastle team-mate Matt Ritchie told The Athletic in March. \u201cHe\u2019s not like (Sergio) Aguero, where he\u2019s solid. He\u2019s more like a gymnast. As a young player, you have to evolve because your body\u2019s never been exposed to that and he needed that to be able to meet the Premier League\u2019s intensity.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the major improvement in Isak\u2019s game has come in the most important currency \u2014 goals. Liverpool are among his favourite opponents, with four goals in just six games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I have a lot to give, I think I have a lot to improve,\u201d Isak said after joining Liverpool. \u201cI\u2019m a striker but I always want to give as much as possible to the team, mainly goals but much more than that as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to win everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three years ago, there had been a perception whilst he was at Real Sociedad that his numbers had fallen off \u2014 or at least plateaued. Newcastle resisted that \u2014 but recognised that improvements could be made. Despite his penchant for the spectacular, there were low-hanging improvements that Howe was certain he could work on.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know what he needs? More tap-ins,\u201d Howe told The Athletic last year.<\/a> \u201cThat\u2019s the big thing for Alex, I think. The ugly goals. He does the beautiful ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and the gaffer look at how I can get, not easy goals, but ones where you\u2019re at the right place at the right time,\u201d Isak added. \u201cThat\u2019s something I could get more of.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024-25, his best season as a professional, Isak decisively delivered on that intent. His 27 goals across all competitions were a career high \u2014 but notably came about as part of a large uptick in those scrappy goals.<\/p>\n

Eight league goals were scored from within the six-yard box, a career high, while 19 of them came with his first touch, another peak. Isak was decisive, instantaneous, and effective. In a Liverpool team whose No 9 could struggle to finish clear chances last season, the upgrade Isak offers is clear.<\/p>\n

They say the deal has cost them \u00a3125m \u2014 and for that they get multiple strikers in one.<\/p>\n

Isak has always been a dribbler and a ball-striker, he has worked to become a link-man and a poacher. He is now in his prime. How many worlds does Alexander have left to conquer?<\/p>\n

(Top photo by Stu Forster via Getty Images)<\/p>\n