Wayne Rooney warned Arne Slot about Alexander Isak problem he's about to solve

Alexander Isak is still finding his feet with Liverpool, with Hugo Ekitike having taken center stage so far this season for Arne Slot when it comes to his number nines

Wayne Rooney looks on before the Champions League game between Liverpool and Real Madrid.(Image: Simon Stacpoole/Offside via Getty Images)

Alexander Isak has so far only scored one Premier League goal for Liverpool. After making the move to Anfield for a fee of $169 million (£125 million), it would be fair to say all parties expected more.

There is still time for Isak to prove good value for money — and, as Arne Slot has said a few times, the player was bought for six years, not six months — but with Mohamed Salah now at AFCON, this would be a good time for the Swede to click into gear.

Hugo Ekitike has scored a brace in each of his last two league appearances and he can't be taken out of the team at the moment. But if he is deployed alongside Isak, which seems a strong possibility in Salah's absence, that could bring more out of the pair.

"I wouldn't play Isak; he hasn't looked ready since coming from Newcastle," Rooney argued back in October on The Wayne Rooney Show. "He hasn't trained, hasn't had a pre-season. It's so important.

"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 for it. On performances, he doesn't deserve to be playing ahead of Ekitike."

That warning has proven to be correct, but this is a stage of the season where Liverpool could do with both players coming to the fore.

Alexander Isak continues to struggle despite Liverpool's recent upturn in results

In a 4-4-2 diamond system, an Isak-Ekitike front two could be the plan that Slot had in mind for this period. And with Curtis Jones and Florian Wirtz looking better with more bodies around them in midfield, it works for others too.

Earlier this week, Spurs defender Micky van de Ven explained just how hard it was to play against Isak at his peak.

"So the game we played against Newcastle when we lost, the game I slipped as well," he told The Overlap. "But this game, Isak was different level, so at this point I was like, ‘He’s a top-class player’.

"I knew he was top class, but this game I was like, [he’s excellent].

"He can run in behind, he can come into the ball and, technically, he’s also really good with the ball. He’s fast, he has a top finish. So at that point, he was literally just like everywhere."

While he hasn't shown it often, or arguably even at all, yet for Liverpool, Isak's class is undeniable. In the period in which Salah is out, Arne Slot could really do with him starting to show it.

Liverpool.com says: Isak will get sustained chances in the next few weeks, with Salah missing and Cody Gakpo injured. That can only help him, and Slot could do with his number nine stepping up.

While Rooney warned against picking Isak over Ekitike, Slot no longer has to make the choice. Playing both seems the obvious solution for the upcoming games.