How will Arne Slot change his Liverpool tactics to get best out of Alexander Isak? | Jonathan Wilson

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View image in fullscreenAnalysisHow will Arne Slot change his Liverpool tactics to get best out of Alexander Isak?

Swede is not a classic central striker, but could his signing herald tactical tweaks and what does it mean for Salah?

On the face of it, it’s not hard to see why Liverpool would want Alexander Isak.

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.



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.

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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.