What Arne Slot now EXPECTS from Alexander Isak following record £125m deadline deal

Liverpool signed Alexander Isak on a British record deal last summer.

The striker arrived from Newcastle for a £125m fee - surpassing the £116m that the Reds had earlier paid for Florian Wirtz.

However, owing to a lack of preseason, the Sweden international came to the club short of match sharpness. It was always going to take the 26-year-old some time to get up to speed - although he got off the mark with a goal against Southampton in the EFL Cup.

Liverpool are still waiting to see the best from Isak - that’s fair to say - and he managed only four touches of the ball in a half-hour substitute appearance against Galatasaray in the Champions League last week.

Isak off the mark

To date he’s scored only once in six appearances for the Premier League champions - although he also got an assist in the defeat to Chelsea over the weekend.

The club were in a sense prepared for this kind of slow start - with Hugo Ekitike picking up the slack in the early part of the season.

Isak was being managed very carefully - playing only 20 minutes across two matches for Sweden in the last international window.

Things are set to change this time around however - with the expectations that Arne Slot has got for Isak over the coming weeks being revealed.

Arne Slot wants to see Isak in the action

Liverpool insider James Pearce has stated that Slot expects his star forward to play a LOT more over the course of Sweden’s next two fixtures - against Switzerland and Kosovo - in FIFA 2026 World Cup qualification.

“When Isak went away with Sweden last month, Slot was relieved that national team manager Jon Dahl Tomasson resisted the temptation to throw him straight in and only gave him one brief cameo appearance,” he writes in the Athletic.

“This time around, Slot will welcome the striker having a bigger role to play for his country in the World Cup qualifiers against Switzerland and Kosovo as he continues to strive for full match fitness.”

It's time for Isak to STEP UP

That - in turn - will benefit Liverpool with Isak hopefully finding his form over the next two games. Then it’s Manchester United - with Pearce making it clear that the time for Isak to start performing the way a £125m striker should is rapidly approaching.

“Liverpool always felt it would be mid to late-October before they saw the best of him,” he writes.

After the Man Utd clash on October 19, the Reds are set for yet another busy fixture pile-up. The run until the end of the month includes Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League, a top-flight game against Brentford and an EFL Cup tie against Crystal Palace.

There will be no let-up until the following international break either - with November’s matches including Aston Villa, Real Madrid and Manchester City.

The time is coming for Isak to step up.

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