Alexander Isak: Liverpool's Key to Success This Season

Andoni Iraola is under no illusions about Alexander Isak. The Liverpool head coach knows the Sweden striker will score. His job now is to turn him into far more than just a finisher.

Isak walks into the season as Liverpool’s only fit, senior centre-forward. Hugo Ekitike is still sidelined after Achilles surgery, Mohamed Salah has gone, and the burden at the top of the pitch has narrowed onto one pair of shoulders.

That makes his fitness non-negotiable. Last season at Anfield barely got going for him: injuries cut him down to just 12 starts in 22 appearances, with four goals and only one of those coming after he broke his leg at Tottenham just before Christmas. The numbers tell the story of a campaign that never truly caught rhythm.

This time, Iraola wants something very different.

“Alex is going to be a very important player for us this season,” he said. “Right now he is in a very good place; he has been training every day, he has not missed a session, he has been adding more and more minutes every friendly game.

“He played a very good World Cup in terms of availability, fitness level, and I want to keep him there as much as we can.

“We know his level and if we can keep him there he will score the goals and give us a lot of things.”

The goals are almost taken as a given. The evolution lies in everything around them.

Isak’s understanding with Florian Wirtz could define Liverpool’s attacking shape. Wirtz has been restored to his natural No. 10 role after being shuffled around by former boss Arne Slot, and the connection between the two will be central to how Iraola’s side attack. The coach, though, is demanding more than simple combinations around the box.

“Probably my fight with him, my instructions, are more in terms of without the ball and how he can help in his position when we are with the ball so he can open spaces for other players,” Iraola explained.

“I am not trying to focus in terms of goals but he is a striker, he will want to score, but I try not to judge the strikers if they score or if they haven't.”

So this is not just about Isak finishing moves. It’s about him triggering presses, dragging centre-backs out of shape, creating corridors for Wirtz and the wingers to surge into. A modern No. 9, not a penalty-box passenger.

And the stage for his first act of the season could not be more charged.

Liverpool open on Sunday at Newcastle, the club Isak left after effectively going on strike last summer to force through his move to Anfield. The reception will be hostile, the narrative obvious. A former hero turned villain, walking back into a stadium that once sang his name.

Iraola, though, refused to fuel the drama.

“I suppose it is always special when you play against your ex-team in their stadium — in the same way when I go back to Bournemouth you always want to do well,” he said.

“The first game of the season everyone will be very motivated and I think it is going to be the same for Alex.”

Behind the scenes, the situation is tight. Ekitike is unlikely to return before the new year, and Liverpool’s recruitment drive is focused on wide players. A second £60 million bid for Brighton’s Yankubu Minteh has already been rejected, leaving Iraola juggling needs and options.

That reality forces another question: who backs up Isak?

One answer is already in the building. Cody Gakpo, who has been linked — somewhat implausibly given Liverpool’s thin forward line — with a move to Tottenham, could again be asked to operate through the middle, as he did under Jurgen Klopp.

“In pre-season we haven't tried as we don't have enough wingers and we prioritised what we need from him in his preferred position as a left-winger,” Iraola admitted.

“But I have been talking to him about his minutes as a nine; he has done it before and in certain situations he could help us in the nine position.”

So the picture is clear. Isak is the spearhead, Wirtz the creator, Gakpo the emergency nine, and the market still unresolved out wide. Liverpool’s season, at least early on, leans heavily on one striker staying fit, evolving his game, and walking into a cauldron at St James’ Park with the composure to turn hostility into fuel.

If Iraola gets the version of Isak he wants — the scorer, the creator, the pressing leader — how far can that carry Liverpool in a year of change?