Stan Collymore discusses Alexander Isak and Ruben Amorim in his latest CaughtOffside column. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images, Carl Recine/Getty Images, Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Alexander Isak’s debut for Liverpool, Ruben Amorim’s struggles at Man United, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze at Arsenal, and more.
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My takeaways from Alexander Isak’s Liverpool debut
Alexander Isak in action on his Liverpool debut (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
I watched Alexander Isak very closely against Atletico Madrid, until he went off the pitch. The first thing is that Arne Slot has got to manage the situation well with Ekitike, because he has started life as a Liverpool player very well. All of a sudden, it’s absolutely the carbon copy of when I joined Liverpool as a British record transfer. Ian Rush was there and Robbie Fowler was there. They scored a lot of goals the season before I came. I come into the squad, and human nature is riddled, so they would have been thinking “why is he taking my place?” – that was Fowler in my case. He was on the bench for the first game of the season of my debut against Sheffield Wednesday, when he should have been on the pitch.
In terms of Isak’s performance itself, one of the most important things that I was looking for was his relationship with Salah – it was okay, but it could have been a lot better. From a striker’s perspective, I’m looking to create connections with the players around me – for me to get the best out of myself, to get the best out of them and likewise. The connection actually was more with Wirtz. As the first half went on, I think that Wirtz started to look for Isak. Isak was pointing where he wanted the ball and he was making the runs. And both his relationship and his connection with Gakpo and Wirtz was encouraging.
In terms of the discipline, he’s got to be like Erling Haaland in his first season at Man City – hold it up, lay it off, get in the box. Because there isn’t going to be loads of space in behind because every…
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