2 weeks ago
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Gary Lineker has urged Liverpool to show patience with Alexander Isak, who has yet to settle at Anfield following his record-breaking switch from Newcastle.
The striker has found it difficult to make his mark in the Premier League since his summer arrival. His most recent blank came during Liverpool's 2-1 reverse against Manchester United on Sunday.
Despite being selected ahead of Hugo Ekitike as the main striker and featuring for 72 minutes, Isak was unable to open his account, adding to Liverpool's fourth straight defeat. Given the substantial fee and the work that went into landing his signature, expectations are sky-high for Isak at Liverpool. The Sweden international has thus far failed to live up to them.
This has prompted calls from former England captain Wayne Rooney for Isak to be dropped to the substitutes' bench. Speaking on The Wayne Rooney Show, he said: "I wouldn't play Isak, he hasn't looked ready since coming from Newcastle.
"He hasn't trained, hasn't had a pre-season. It's so important. While Newcastle were training he was probably sat at home on the phone to his agent for six hours a day trying to get a move.
"It's so difficult when you don't have a pre-season. He might've done stuff by himself but he's paying the price of it. On performances, he doesn't deserve to be playing ahead of Ekitike."
Nevertheless, Lineker takes a different view to Rooney and feels that Liverpool ought to afford Isak additional time, considering his disrupted pre-season preparations.
"I would say that because of the length of time all of that debacle took place, he wouldn't be as fit and as fresh so he's playing catch-up," Lineker stated on The Rest Is Football.
"When you miss pre-season, it's almost like an injured player coming back. So I would actually give him a little bit more time because he's only played a handful of games.
"It's almost like he's going through pre-season during a real season. So I would give him a little bit of time on that front, and I think he'll come good because he's such a classy player."
Fellow pundit Micah Richards offered a sterner assessment of the striker, drawing parallels between his current performances and those during his stint at Newcastle.
"Isak is the shadow of the player this whole debacle of what happened in the summer, it's showing. He's not fit," he commented.
"Arne Slot said in the press conference before that now we're going to see the real Isak because he looks like he's going to be fit now.
"But the chance that he had in the game, if he's at Newcastle, he tucks that away."
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