How will Arne Slot change his Liverpool tactics to get best out of Alexander Isak? | Liverpool

On the face of it, it’s not onerous to see why Liverpool would need Alexander Isak. He is not going to flip 26 till later this month and has scored greater than 20 Premier League objectives in every of the previous two seasons, one thing matched solely by Erling Haaland. However he provides extra than simply objectives; he’s a really fashionable centre-forward.

Thirty or 40 years in the past, when 4-4-2 was nonetheless the dominant formation, strike pairings tended to come back in two types: both target-man and finisher, or creator and finisher. Nowadays, the perfect centre-forwards mix traits of all three. This isn’t completely new: the times of Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush or Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips are lengthy gone and soccer has been acquainted for a while with gamers of the ilk of Didier Drogba, Andriy Shevchenko and Radamel Falcao, forwards with tempo and a few mix of physicality and technical potential.

Haaland, big and quick and a superb finisher, felt like a one-man extension of that, virtually a generational freak within the method of the fabled Argentinian Bernabé Ferreyra or the flawed Russian nice Eduard Streltsov.

However whereas Haaland at 6ft 5in nonetheless leads the way in which when it comes to being a mix of measurement and tempo, there are many others in his mould. This summer season’s switch window has been characterised by the good carousel of strikers, most of whom conform to the template. Isak is 6ft 4in, Benjamin Sesko and Nick Woltemade are 6ft 5in, Viktor Gyökeres, Hugo Ekitiké and Randal Kolo Muani are 6ft 2in, and Liam Delap and Victor Osimhen are 6ft 1in, but none of them may very well be classed as goal males. All are cell, all have technical potential and none are reliant on trundling to the again put up to satisfy lengthy diagonals.

Isak has not traditionally been particularly prolific within the air, and his comparatively wiry construct means he’s not going to bully many centre-backs, however 4 of his 23 objectives final season had been headers, together with arguably his most memorable, as he met an outswinging cross from Anthony Gordon on the fitting to get the winner towards Arsenal.

Extra clearly eye-catching is his capability to run the channels and work throughout the entrance line, receiving the ball in vast areas in addition to within the field. Though he was primarily used as a central striker at Actual Sociedad, there have been occasions there when he performed on each the left and the fitting flanks.

Given how Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah naturally minimize infield, and so want the striker to get out of the way in which to create house for them, it’s straightforward to see how the three might kind an especially fluid ahead line, however with the added benefit that Isak can be utilized extra within the method of a conventional striker to attempt to meet crosses, albeit extra with intelligent motion than by overpowering his markers. He additionally has an explosive flip of tempo, so might maybe profit from via balls performed by Florian Wirtz.

That implies it can often be a case of Isak or Ekitiké within the beginning lineup, though the French ahead, like Isak, is cell and under no circumstances mounted to a central position. At Eintracht Frankfurt there have been occasions when Ekitiké performed alongside Omar Marmoush in a 4-4-2. Though that may not appear a pure strategy to get the most effective out of Salah, there’s no motive why Ekitiké and Isak couldn’t play as a pair, whether or not that’s in a 4-4-2 – Gakpo has at occasions performed on the left facet of midfield and, given Dominik Szoboszlai’s new-found capability to function at full-back, it will appear cheap to suppose he might additionally function as a slender right-sided midfielder, maybe with Jeremie Frimpong overlapping.

Starting to plan for a future after Salah is sensible. He’s 33 and his contract expires in 2027, that means subsequent summer season would appear a logical time to dump him. With out Salah, there may be much less want to stay to the 4-3-3 that has characterised how Liverpool have performed for many of the previous decade, even when Slot is characteristically Dutch in his desire for vast forwards.

For all of the drama and cash spent, Liverpool have ended up with as many forwards as they’d final season. It could really feel distasteful to debate the tragedy of Diogo Jota’s demise within the context of squad planning however the grim actuality is that he left an area that the membership needed to fill. With Darwin Núñez and Luis Díaz bought, and Wirtz, Ekitiké and Isak arriving, Liverpool’s squad has comparable depth to final season, however maybe better high quality. The doubt is that, for all its versatility, it is a bit more centered on the centre.

And the larger concern, maybe, is that the squad out of the blue seems very frontloaded. For all of the attacking choices, there’s a hazard Liverpool are left quick behind midfield. But when Szoboszlai might be an efficient right-back, Slot might have all method of contingencies lined up.