£45m star is now Liverpool’s most frustrating player since Nunez

Final yr, Arne Slot received the sprawling Liverpool fanbase over together with his unimaginable success in changing the irreplaceable Jurgen Klopp and establishing a transparent and compelling identification.

However final season’s Premier League title triumph is a far cry from this present Liverpool crop, who’ve been battered away from title-defending rivalry after a run of six losses and only one win throughout eight league fixtures.

A lot has gone awry, however Slot’s failure to get a tune out of £125m summer season signing Alexander Isak has acquired to be among the many greatest worries.

Isak’s begin to life at Liverpool

Isak, 26, left Newcastle as one of the vital devastating forwards in world soccer, instrumental within the rise of Eddie Howe’s Tyneside crew over the previous three years.

However there is not any query that he is struggled to adapt to date this season, having solely scored twice to date and routinely drifting on the sting of matches. After Liverpool’s latest draw to Sunderland, Slot admitted that offering the 26-year-old was amongst his priorities to repair.

However, for now, his impression has been nominal, failing to convey the completeness and sharpness that his predecessor, Darwin Nunez, failed over three years to maintain with consistency.

Reporter David Lynch really claimed final month that “Isak is at the moment providing lower than Nunez did throughout his ultimate yr at Anfield”, and the few video games he has performed since have supplied little encouragement that such a daring declare is with out legs.

Nonetheless, this can be a time for cool heads, so far as the Swedish striker’s future on Merseyside is worried.

Isak is among the finest strikers on the planet, and he will certainly come good on the Anfield spearhead.

Liverpool’s new model of Darwin Nunez

Liverpool have loved Cody Gakpo’s companies for nearly three years now, buying PSV Eindhoven’s talisman for a payment rising to £45m in late December 2022.

The left-sided ahead is properly considered one of the vital prolific wingers in European soccer, however his total performances do go away one thing to be desired. The truth is, his samey efforts down the wing have irked some Liverpool followers throughout the marketing campaign, and it is because of this that he, and never Isak, is changing into the membership’s new model of Nunez.

Liverpool have been too predictable this season, and the sight of Gakpo claiming the ball on the left flank and continuing to chop inside has turn into a too-regular incidence, one thing opponents are clearly cottoning onto.

The Netherlands worldwide does provide one thing, however he is not dynamic sufficient, and the absence of Luis Diaz’s electrical risk is accentuated by his sustained beginning function on the left wing.

Wanting on the information might go away a couple of followers feeling moderately incredulous. Gakpo is statistically among the many most inventive gamers within the Premier League this season, and his return of 4 objectives and three assists from 12 top-flight begins is fairly good for an outfit to date out of kinds.

However he has additionally fallen into the lure of predictability, and lots of are questioning why somebody like Federico Chiesa will not be getting an opportunity to point out what he can do in his stead (reminder: Chiesa has not began within the Premier League or Champions League for Liverpool this yr).

Nunez left Anfield a preferred determine, nevertheless it was clear that Liverpool wanted to stage up at quantity 9 after three phrases of inconsistency from the Uruguayan.

Gakpo is not inconsistent, per se, however he’s undoubtedly irritating in his inswinging repetition, and for this reason he’s changing into a picked-on determine in the identical vein as Nunez earlier than him.