10 hours ago
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Alexander Isak's representative must shoulder significant responsibility for the Swedish forward's dip in performance following his protracted summer transfer saga, according to former Manchester City and Chelsea player Shaun Wright-Phillips.
The striker effectively downed tools in August in an attempt to engineer a switch from Newcastle to Liverpool, a transfer which ultimately materialised in the final stages of the window for a Premier League record £125 million ($165.4 million).
While the episode proved damaging to Newcastle's transfer planning, it is arguably Isak who has suffered most, with the 26-year-old struggling to recapture his best form at Anfield. He has found the net just once in a Liverpool shirt.
Isak has also been on the losing side in each of his four Premier League starts as Arne Slot's players have failed to replicate last season's achievements.
This has prompted suggestions that he should be omitted from the Reds' starting XI in favor of Hugo Ekitike, with Liverpool facing PSV in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Nevertheless, Wright-Phillips believes Isak's agent must bear considerable responsibility due to the striker's position over the summer, which resulted in him missing virtually the entire pre-season programme.
"I would say Alexander Isak, but I know how tough it is to miss preseason and then come into the league a little behind people," Wright-Phillips told BestBettingSites.
"I think the agent has to take plenty of the blame. Everything about that move was handled in the wrong way. There was no reason for him to miss training, and he would have been advised to do that, to kick up a stink. I think that was a bad idea, and he should have gone to training and got a full pre-season behind him.
"Whether he was at Newcastle or Liverpool, he’d have hit the ground running. Now he’s chasing everyone, two weeks behind, playing catch-up. When you miss preseason, you’re at more risk of breaking down and getting injured. You get thrown into games without proper conditioning. It’s all well and good training on your own, but it just doesn’t match up to a pre-season with your team-mates.
"It's not enough work. The workload and strengthening they’re doing is completely different, so he needs to catch up. He needs to do it quickly, too, because he looks uncomfortable right now."
All attention will turn to the Liverpool team selection on Wednesday, with Ekitike anticipated to feature as Slot considers rotating his forward line - though Wright-Phillips believes Isak requires additional game time.
"I think the manager already has made his mind up with that because Isak started on the weekend," he continued. "I thought that was because he was planning to get Ekitike in from the start this week, and he was using the Forest game to give Isak minutes.
"The problem is, Liverpool's performance was just so bad that it was almost a waste. Isak didn't get much to work with, wasn't getting the repetitions in to shoot or to be part of the attack.
"So there's a lot he missed from that game, which was not just his fault, but he's got to find a way to hit the ground running and hit it soon because Liverpool need him. The players need him. So he's under a lot of pressure at the minute."
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