Liverpool sent worrying Alexander Isak warning after £125m transfer - 'He's not ready'

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Sweden international Isak has scored just one Premier League goal for the Reds since he joined for a British-record fee of £125m on September 1 from Newcastle United.The acrimonious nature of his Newcastle exit meant the striker didn't have a pre-season schedule on Tyneside, with Isak banished from the first team by manager Eddie Howe and made to train on his own while he attempted to engineer his blockbuster move to Anfield.As a result, Isak has looked someway short of the form that saw him score 23 times for the Magpies last time out and a groin injury, picked up in October, has also had a knock-on effect for the 26-year-old.READ MORE: 'Irritated' Liverpool legend Graeme Souness takes aim at Mohamed Salah - 'Look in the mirror'"From Isak's point of view, I have my own podcast with my fitness coach, and one of the things we discussed was that he's not fit and he won't get fit until next season because when you come into a football club and haven't done a full pre-season with players, it's very difficult to get up to speed," Warnock told aceodds."When you are talking about doing runs on your own, you're not getting pushed by anyone. There was nothing competitive at Liverpool to push him."I just don't think we're going to see anything from Isak this year.

Well it's not because he's not fit enough and he's not ready to play in the Premier League at the highest level."We spoke on the podcast and we said he won't be ready till next season and maybe that's where we see Hugo Ekitike accelerate past Isak and Isak will have to bide his time a little bit more."On Hugo Ekitike, who is now up to 10 Liverpool goals since his own summer move, Warnock added: "I don't think they'd have signed both players had it not been for the horrific tragedy with Diogo Jota. I think they would have gone for Isak and then Ekitike became available and they added him in."I don't think they would have thought that Ekitike would be as prominent as he has been and play as well as he is.

I think they thought he was more of a future buy and someone who could be a backup to Isak. I think he's been outstanding.