Alexander Isak

[Sus]

Probably cost a lot more to buy Anthony Gordon ( especially once wages get factored in) than it would to get Diomande IMO.

Hmm fair point on wages - Gordon, despite his punchable face, would be a significant upgrade on our current forward line, even if he is just a level below elite

Would be a great squad player if we could also get someone like Olise on the right (probably a pipe dream this summer)

[peterbread]

Gordon would also provide a serious amount of work off the ball and doesn’t mind putting himself about. We don’t have many attacking players who can press and harry the opposition then add in the pace he would offer. I think he’s better than what we see at Newcastle. How good I don’t know but I don’t think they have an attack that shows their players best qualities without Isak or with Howe in charge.

[RedReet]

Zlatan Ibrahimović on Alexander Isak winning Player of the Match after scoring one goal and providing two assists against Tunisia national football team:
????️ “This is why I laugh when people ask if Alexander Isak belongs among the best strikers in the world. Tonight wasn't a debate it was a demonstration.

One goal. Two assists. Player of the Match. He didn't just play well, he controlled the entire game. Every dangerous attack seemed to go through him.

What impressed me most was how easy he made it look. Some players need ten chances to make an impact. Isak only needs one moment, and suddenly the whole match changes.

Tunisia had defenders around him all night, but it didn't matter. He was too quick in his thinking, too calm on the ball, and too intelligent with his movement.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sweden are not just a better team with Isak they are a completely different team. Opponents prepare differently when they know he's on the pitch.

The scary part is that he's still improving. Most strikers are happy with a goal. Isak wants to score, create, dominate, and decide games all at once.

If he keeps performing like this, people will stop talking about him as one of Sweden's stars. They'll start talking about him as one of the stars of the entire World Cup.

And trust me, after a performance like tonight, a lot of defenders are already hoping they don't have to face him next.”

[Kenneth]

Okay, but the keeper should have saved it, and VAR had to intervene to determine whether he touched the ball for one if the assists.

[Charly]

The mighty Tunisia?

Hopefully he can carry that form over into next season, because I am yet to be convinced.

[Charly]

double post

[Doc_Piptorious]

The mighty Tunisia?

Hopefully he can carry that form over into next season.

He got minutes against a lesser team, but was playing in hot weather and the team he had around him was weaker than what he will have at Liverpool.

Gives him some on pitch conditioning, the goal and two assiste (one fortunate) will keep his confidence up.

No worse imo than him going up against a Championship side in the cup.

Minutes and goals this world cup and we might get to see the sharp in attack Isak next season that we missed out on seeing the season just gone.

[Doc_Piptorious]

The mighty Tunisia?

Hopefully he can carry that form over into next season.

[BobTheCharmer]

Hopefully he gets a few more goals, stays fit and takes that form into next season.

[frank the tank]

Or we can sell the cunt

[Charly]

Lets face it, he had a **** season, and wasnt fit for any of his games. We massively overpaid anyway, imho. But he deserves another season to find his feet. I think he is a particular kind of player we need to adapt somewhat to get the best out of him. The team were useless in the buildup last year which I think suited Ekitike more as he can dribble further up the pitch. Hopefully the players we do bring in this year will fit into a particular system rather than whatever we did last year

[memzey]

With Isak I think it's all about fitness. I didn't particularly want him at that price and given the arseholery he pulled off to engineer it but, as he's here, we need to acknowledge he is an elite striker. No question on that from me. He just needs to stay fit and available for all our games and I think he/we will figure out how to maximise his contribution.

[Exiled_red]

With Isak I think it's all about fitness. I didn't particularly want him at that price and given the arseholery he pulled off to engineer it but, as he's here, we need to acknowledge he is an elite striker. No question on that from me. He just needs to stay fit and available for all our games and I think he/we will figure out how to maximise his contribution.

I don't think you can ever get him to play every game, my view would be the best approach is managing his minutes prioritising games you want him to play more in, and accepting that he plays 90mins or close to in one game, he might only play 20-30mins as sub in the one in midweek (or vice versa). But I suspect if we try and get him playing 80+ mins twice a week he''s going to have fitness issues. Obviously that approach means that you need to have someone of sufficient quality to play the majority of the other game, and with Ekitike out it's not obvious how we solve that

[Catrin]

Isak is unlikely to give us any 30 goal seasons because he just isn’t physically robust enough to play enough minutes. He has enough quality to make a difference in any game he plays in but not enough physicality for that to be every game the club has. If we prioritise having him fit for the more difficult games he could be the difference that gets us trophies like the CL. Newcastle rested him for the League Cup final against us and he was probably the difference in that match. Rotate him, take few risks with him etc and he could be the difference for us against the likes of PSG, Barca or Real.

[Exiled_red]

Isak is unlikely to give us any 30 goal seasons because he just isn’t physically robust enough to play enough minutes. He has enough quality to make a difference in any game he plays in but not enough physicality for that to be every game the club has. If we prioritise having him fit for the more difficult games he could be the difference that gets us trophies like the CL. Newcastle rested him for the League Cup final against us and he was probably the difference in that match. Rotate him, take few risks with him etc and he could be the difference for us against the likes of PSG, Barca or Real.

Almost no player is going to play all our minutes of every game, VVD came close last season playing 4900+ mins but that is (or should be) something of an anomaly. Last season ~3500mins represented playing about 70% of our minutes and only 7 players reached that mark (24-25 that was 4 players and 23-24 it was 3 players) number of players reaching 3000 mins in the last 3 seasons was 10, 10 and 7. I think for Isak something like 3000 mins should probably be the target. That puts him as a regular player, but hopefully not an excess workload Given we would likely be expecting to have about 55 games that represents something like 90 mins one game and 20 mins the next if you are playing 2 games in a week.

It would require a phenomenal effort to get 30 goals from that amount of minutes (it equates to a goal every 100 mins) and presumably you are prioritising big games and not stat padding by bagging a few against League 2 sides in the cups. What it does mean is that you still need another striker who is going to play the other ~2000 mins and with Ekitike out it's not clear who that is