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Jamie Carragher has doubled down on his comments about Liverpool’s pursuit of Alexander Isak after questioning the way his former club has gone about its business.
The Reds continue to be strongly linked with the Newcastle striker, despite having a bid rejected for him last week, and no plans currently in place to submit another offer.
The saga looks to be far from over though. Isak was forced to train away from the rest of his teammates on Wednesday, with Eddie Howe also telling him to stay away from a family event being held at Newcastle’s training ground. Meanwhile, the Magpies’ failure to land Benjamin Sesko looks to have created another roadblock to a potential exit for the Swedish international.
Nevertheless, there is a growing sense that Liverpool’s pursuit of Isak might not be over - something that Carragher has been left confused by.
The former defender questioned Liverpool’s attempts to sign Isak as he appeared on The Overlap’s Fan Debate, given the signing of Hugo Ekitike already this summer.
“He will be an amazing signing, but from a fan’s point of view for myself, I don’t want Liverpool to spend £150 million on Isak,” Carragher said.
"There’s something about Liverpool buying another striker [Ekitike], and he’s backup. Something about it doesn’t feel right to me. I know Liverpool need numbers, for a number of reasons, at the top of the pitch.
“I look at Isak, and he’s obviously thrown his toys out the pram once Arsenal signed a striker and Liverpool signed a striker. From his point of view and from his agent’s point of view, do they not tell Newcastle months ago that they wanted to move on?
"It feels a bit messy to me now. For me, when I think of Liverpool, it doesn’t look really planned – I don’t think the plan is to buy a striker for £80 million, and then be looking to buy another one for £120 million.”
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Carragher’s comments have come in for some backlash online from Liverpool fans, many of whom see Isak as the club’s dream signing, and feel there would still be a place in the side for Ekitike given he is also capable of playing on the left.
Carragher though isn’t backing down, insisting he can’t see how both Ekitike and Isak could play regularly at Anfield, and drawing upon Erling Haaland and Harry Kane to back up his argument.
“When you have a top striker, like Isaak [sic]/Haaland/Kane it’s very difficult to have quality back up as they always play,” Carragher responded to one fan on X.
“Spurs never had any back up for Kane, Newcastle had an injury prone Callum Wilson & Man City had to sell Alvarez because they couldn’t keep him happy.”
Carragher added: “80M is too much to pay for back up. Where does Ekitike get his minutes in HIS position, not fudging it by putting him on the left.
“Hard to play together when you’ve spent 115M on Wirtz. And yes we do need to buy more attackers!”
Liverpool.com says: We get Carragher’s argument to some extent, but it is very presumptuous of him to assume that Ekitike would just act as backup to Isak.
There are options that could work with both players in the side, and even if Ekitike became more of a backup to Isak, that doesn’t mean he would be starved of minutes.
Liverpool knows that better than anyone, having juggled with Salah, Diaz, Gakpo, Nunez and Jota over the last few years, and Isak is unlikely to go through a whole season without any injuries, so Ekitike should get plenty of playing time regardless.
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