On the face of it, it’s not hard to see why Liverpool would want Alexander Isak. He will not turn 26 until later this month and has scored more than 20 Premier League goals in each of the past two seasons, something matched only by Erling Haaland. But he offers more than just goals; he’s a very modern centre-forward.
Thirty or 40 years ago, when 4-4-2 was still the dominant formation, strike pairings tended to come in two forms: either target-man and finisher, or creator and finisher. These days, the very best centre-forwards combine traits of all three. This is not entirely new: the days of Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush or Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips are long gone and football has been familiar for some time with players of the ilk of Didier Drogba, Andriy Shevchenko and Radamel Falcao, forwards with pace and some blend of physicality and technical ability.
Haaland, huge and fast and a fine finisher, felt like a one-man extension of that, almost a generational freak in the manner of the fabled Argentinian Bernabé Ferreyra or the flawed Russian great Eduard Streltsov.
But while Haaland at 6ft 5in still leads the way in terms of being a blend of size and pace, there are plenty of others in his mould. This summer’s transfer window has been characterised by the great carousel of strikers, most of whom conform to the template. Isak is 6ft 4in, Benjamin Sesko and Nick Woltemade are 6ft 5in, Viktor Gyökeres, Hugo Ekitiké and Randal Kolo Muani are 6ft 2in, and Liam Delap and Victor Osimhen are 6ft 1in, yet none of them could be classed as target men. All are mobile, all have technical ability and none are reliant on trundling to the back post to meet long diagonals.
Isak has not historically been especially prolific in the air, and his relatively wiry build means he is not going to bully many centre-backs, but four of his 23 goals last season were headers, including arguably his most memorable, as he met an outswinging cross from Anthony Gordon on the right to get the winner against Arsenal.
More obviously eye-catching is his capacity to run the channels and work across the front line, receiving the ball in wide areas as well as in the box. Although he was mainly used as a central striker at Real Sociedad, there were times there when he played on both the left and the right flanks.
Given how Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah naturally cut infield, and so need the striker to get out of the way to create space for them, it’s easy to see how the three could form an extremely fluid forward line, but with the added advantage that Isak can be used more in the manner of a traditional striker to try to meet crosses, albeit more with clever movement than by overpowering his markers. He also has an explosive turn of pace, so could perhaps benefit from through balls played by Florian Wirtz.
That suggests it will usually be a case of Isak or Ekitiké in the starting lineup, although the France international, like Isak, is mobile and by no means fixed to a central role. At Eintracht Frankfurt there were times when Ekitiké played alongside Omar Marmoush in a 4-4-2. Although that would not seem a natural way to get the best out of Salah, there’s no reason why Ekitiké and Isak could not play as a pair, whether that is in a 4-4-2 – Gakpo has at times played on the left side of midfield and, given Dominik Szoboszlai’s new-found capacity to operate at full-back, it would seem reasonable to suppose he could also operate as a narrow right-sided midfielder, perhaps with Jeremie Frimpong overlapping.
Beginning to plan for a future after Salah makes sense. He is 33 and his contract expires in 2027, meaning next summer would seem a logical time to offload him. Without Salah, there is less need to stick to the 4-3-3 that has characterised how Liverpool have played for most of the past decade, even if Slot is characteristically Dutch in his preference for wide forwards.
For all the drama and money spent, Liverpool have ended up with as many forwards as they had last season. It may feel distasteful to discuss the tragedy of Diogo Jota’s death in the context of squad planning but the grim reality is that he left a space that the club had to fill. With Darwin Núñez and Luis Díaz sold, and Wirtz, Ekitiké and Isak arriving, Liverpool’s squad has similar depth to last season, but perhaps greater quality. The doubt is that, for all its versatility, it is a little more focused on the centre.
And the bigger concern, perhaps, is that the squad suddenly looks very frontloaded. For all the attacking options, there is a danger Liverpool are left short at the back of midfield. But if Szoboszlai can be an effective right-back, Slot could have all manner of contingencies lined up.
