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Among rational minds, there is absolutely no concern about Alexander Isak. Liverpool, certainly, is happy to wait until after the international break to see the best version of the striker, who missed his entire preseason.
Despite this disruption, the British record signing has still looked reasonably sharp, opening his account in the Carabao Cup recently and notching a Premier League assist in the defeat to Chelsea. But a former Manchester United player has taken it upon himself to have a go at the Liverpool star.
Nicky Butt gets points for creativity, I suppose, when his old Man Utd cronies Gary Neville and Paul Scholes have chosen to single out Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez. But it is very difficult to understand why he has decided to hone in on Isak.
Former midfielder Butt, apparently now a self-appointed expert on strikers' movements, has callled out Isak's positioning. He says that the man who pilfered 23 goals for Newcastle last season is "all over the show".
"Do you know with Isak, I watched the game, I think he’s all over the show," Butt told The Good, The Bad & The Football Podcast. "If I was his manager, I would just say to him, stay the width of the penalty box.
"Stop running down the channels. He’s a center-forward.
"He should be the center of the goal, trying to score goals. He’s doing too much running down the channels for me."
Butt did go on to concede that it was "good" that Isak clearly wants to prove himself. But he diagnosed an over-eagerness, advising the striker to stay in the middle.
Could there be an element of playing to the crowd here from Butt, who is not only formerly of Man Utd but also Newcastle? Who can say.
Either way, it's safe to say that we are surely at saturation point when it comes to former Man Utd players on podcasts. There are no possible hot takes left to give — I'm half expecting Federico Macheda to pop up and tell us all how Giorgi Mamardashvili's starting position is all wrong.
That's not to say that we won't see Isak's role in the Liverpool side evolve over time. Arne Slot is not only bedding in the former Newcastle man, he's reshaping almost the entire attacking structure, and there are bound to be some teething pains.
It may be that Isak is ultimately told to take a more laser-focused approach. With the quality around him, he does not need to be the one-man attack he was at Newcastle.
But part of his appeal is that he is such a well-rounded attacker. Liverpool knew it was not signing an Erling Haaland type, whose selling point is a simple matter of ruthless efficiency.
The best version of Isak will get more involved than that. Indeed, the best version of the Liverpool attack is a highly fluid one, potentially featuring interchanges with Hugo Ekitike from a wide starting position.
That will only take shape over time, so in that sense Butt is not completely wrong in diagnosing a lack of clear focus right now. But Liverpool will have absolutely no concerns about the positions Isak is taking up, and will be confident he will go from "all over the show" to running the show before too long.
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