Alexander Isak's private Anfield moment could lead to lift-off in Liverpool career

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For just a few minutes on Saturday, long after the 60,000 supporters had shuffled out of Anfield following the Merseyside derby, Alexander Isak might have felt an unwanted sense of deja vu.

Liverpool's No.9 had spent his final weeks on Tyneside training alone as the acrimonious nature of his exit from Newcastle United reached boiling point, and, as a result, was made to work to his own individual regime at the Magpies' Benton base, often hours after his team-mates had left the building.

And having played around 25 minutes of the 2-1 win over Everton on Saturday lunchtime for his new club, Isak once more found himself being put through his paces alone, running from the goalline to the halfway point inside an empty Anfield while Liverpool staff watched on.



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This time though, the warm-down routine was anything but a punishment.

Instead, it was very much part of the wider plan that has been hatched to get him up to speed as quickly as possible for an unbeaten Liverpool.

And as Isak shuttled up and down the Kop end, in drills overseen by fitness coach Dr Conall Murtagh, he will have been comforted by the knowledge that this was all geared towards getting him back to the sort of levels that made him the most expensive transfer in British football history at the start of the month.

Last week was an encouraging one on that front for the £125m man, who celebrated his 26th birthday on Sunday.

He made his Reds debut in an hour-long cameo against Atletico Madrid for what was his most significant outing since May, building on that with another run-out from the bench as Arne Slot's men beat the Blues in the 247th derby.

The minutes accrued means Isak has now played around 100 for club and country since the end of last season and more could arrive in the Carabao Cup when the Reds begin their campaign at the third-round stage at home to Southampton on Tuesday night.

With Jayden Danns having trained with his more senior colleagues on Sunday, Isak may yet be tasked with another showing off the bench but he is almost certain to play some part in a game most of his similarly high-profile colleagues will be sitting out.

It all comes at an opportune time for a club-record capture keen to get sharp and the eye-watering size of the £125m sum inevitably brings about more scrutiny and attention, meaning there is little time and patience, externally at least, for Isak to work his way back to full fitness before he begins repaying the fee.

Hugo Ekitike, who himself signed from Eintracht Frankfurt in a deal that may rise to £79m in July, says players should not be concerned by how much clubs pay for their services and he is looking forward to working alongside Isak for the coming years at Anfield.

"Alex will help the team and help me reach new heights," Ekitike says.

You think about the amount of goals you’re going to score in a season, and I used to aim for twenty, but I’m sure Isak will have even more on his mind.”

Stan Collymore joined Liverpool as the most expensive player of all time on these shores, when he left Nottingham Forest in an £8.5m deal back in 1995 and he looks at the cost of a big-money transfer through a different lens as a result.

"I think that the difference between breaking the transfer record as I did 30 years ago and now, is that it’s hard to adjust for inflation and work out how similar the deals were," Collymore says.

And he needs to hit the ground running because if he hits the ground running, Liverpool fans will forget about all the shenanigans with Newcastle."

In contrast to Saunders and Collymore, Peter Crouch joined the Reds 20 years ago for a modest fee of £7m from relegated Southampton, but the England man, somewhat infamously, endured a goal drought that saw him go 19 games before he opened his account against Wigan Athletic at Anfield.

Crouch has previously likened the coverage of that drought to a "witch-hunt", such was the attention on him at the time, and he is acutely aware of how intense the demands are on those tasked with scoring goals at a club the size of Liverpool.

"Hopefully, Isak can have a similar but longer career than Suarez and Torres, as those two shook the Kop and were only there for a short period," Crouch says.

I feel like (replicating) Salah is too far gone because of the numbers.

"I saw enough in that first hour (against Atletico) to know that he's going to be a massive success.