Old habits die hard, and at Liverpool, they are certainly struggling to shake away the debris from last season, labouring to a 2-2 draw against Newcastle United at St. James’ Park.
In fairness, Andoni Iraola was right to praise his side’s spirit and never-say-die attitude. It means the Spaniard starts his Premier League reign with the Reds on a hard-fought draw against a Magpies side who were more than up for the battle.
There is work to be done. Iraola urged reporters to remember that it’s not just a “personnel” issue, but Liverpool do need to add signings. That said, they also need superstars like Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak to start playing good football.
It was as Liverpool fans feared. Isak struggled to produce a strong performance against Newcastle, but he wasn’t anonymous, letting the occasion get to him and throwing away the chances that he would have taken with lethal and unforgiving precision while wearing black and white.
The Alexander Isak conundrum at Liverpool
It was always going to be a tough afternoon for Liverpool’s record signing. Isak left Newcastle in acrimonious circumstances last summer, going on strike before completing a £125m transfer to Slot’s Liverpool.
Nobody came off any wiser after that calamitous campaign, Liverpool and Newcastle falling by the wayside, Isak unable to recover any of his world-class ability, scoring three times across an injury-hit year.
There can be no excuses this time, but the 26-year-old did little to allay the fears from the Liverpool persuasion that their superstar striker is simply a standard edition in the Premier League, no better than the rest of the crowd.
It’s painful and confusing to write those words, but Isak has got to start performing soon. His wayward shooting is a concern, to be sure, but mended through steadily built layers of confidence.
But the Sweden star’s movement and anticipation left a lot to be desired on Tyneside. After the game, Sky Sports’ Gary Neville branded him as “too nice“, failing to present himself as a menace in the final third.
Isak will continue to feature prominently for Iraola this season, fitness willing, but he has to start offering more. That said, FSG are aware that Liverpool’s attacking line is missing a few pieces, and they are looking to rectify that.
Liverpool transfer could be bad news for Isak
With Hugo Ekitike sidelined for the long run, Liverpool are going to be increasingly reliant on Isak and his ability to convert chances over the first half of the campaign.
But that could be eased through the signing of Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain. According to the Daily Mail’s Lewis Steele, Liverpool are optimistic that they can sign the 23-year-old this week, ahead of the transfer deadline.
This has been a long and protracted process, but all involved parties consider Barcola’s move to Liverpool very much ‘on’. The expectation is that the versatile forward will sign for Liverpool. However, Liverpool and PSG remain at odds over the required transfer fee, with the French giants holding out for £140m, a figure FSG are not prepared to meet.
Arsenal are also lurking in the background, though, so Liverpool cannot afford to let this one slip away.
Barcola has scored 34 goals for PSG since the start of the 2024/25 campaign. During that timeframe, Ousmane Dembele is the only teammate to have outscored him, with back-to-back Champions League titles put in the bag.
Bradley Barcola – Career Stats by Position | ||
|---|---|---|
Position | Apps | Goals + Assists |
Left winger | 136 | 37 + 35 |
Right winger | 41 | 8 + 15 |
Centre-forward | 24 | 9 + 2 |
Described as “one of the best players in Europe” by Liverpool reporter Dave Hendrick, Barcola would add width and pace and a penetrative attacking angle that Liverpool have struggled to muster. He is the real deal, not only a deadly goalscoring threat, but one of the most electric dribblers in the game.
But it’s his swaggering style that could see him become a sensation at Liverpool. Barcola hasn’t hit full stride just yet, but he’s already so good, so sharp, so sure of himself and his world-class talents. In that, we could see the dynamic attacker supersede Isak as Liverpool’s main man in the final third.
After all, he is one of the most relentless ball-strikers in Europe, devastating as he crashes into the area and fires any number of shots on goal. In the Champions League last season, he clocked a top speed of 34.5km/h, putting him in the top 2% of players for that metric.
Isak might have been a force to be reckoned with at Newcastle, but he’s got his work cut out before he can safely say that he is one of the best strikers in the Premier League once again – and now that Mohamed Salah has left Liverpool and signed for Trabzonspor, where he has made a rich goalscoring start, the emphasis on a reliable focal point in attack has only been accentuated.
Though the addition of Barcola could help Isak in his fight to start scoring some goals for Liverpool, there’s a growing fear that he is simply not fit to produce the kind of talismanic displays that were promised when he joined the club from Newcastle one year ago.
Barcola, bona fide superstar with Europe’s greatest outfit right now, could overtake him from the get-go, hammering home the point that Liverpool might not get bang for their buck with the most expensive signing in their history.
