Alexander Isak made his Liverpool debut against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night
Alexander Isak before his Liverpool FC debut
Alexander Isak made his Liverpool debut against Atletico Madrid(Image: Michael Regan - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Alexander Isak has sent a heartfelt message to Liverpool supporters after making his debut for the club. The striker joined the Reds in a club-record £125m move from Newcastle United on transfer deadline day after a lengthy summer saga.
The Sweden international had effectively gone on strike at St. James’ Park in a bid to force an exit, skipping the Magpies’ pre-season tour of the Far East before continuing to train alone away from his team-mates following their return to Tyneside.
He was belatedly granted his desired move to Anfield on deadline day, and made his first appearance of any kind since the final day of last season when handed an 18-minute substitute outing against Kosovo for Sweden during the international break.
Liverpool are managing the striker carefully following a disjointed pre-season, with Arne Slot taking the decision to leave Isak out of his matchday squad for last weekend’s trip to Burnley.
Such a stance was with one eye on the Reds’ clash with Atletico Madrid, with Slot also admitting that he expected Isak to be fit to feature for at least 45 minutes against the La Liga outfit.
Sure enough, the 25-year-old was selected to start against the Spanish outfit and completed 58 minutes during an encouraging debut performance.
Meanwhile, he received the loudest of receptions from supporters both as his name was read out ahead of kick-off and when replaced shortly before the hour-mark.
Taking to Instagram after the match, Isak paid tribute to the Liverpool fanbase as he shared his delight at making his long-awaited debut for the Reds.
“Amazing night to make my debut,” he wrote. “Thank you for the warm welcome reds! YNWA”.
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Slot had earlier admitted his surprise at how fit Isak had been during his debut performance despite his disjointed summer.
“I was positively surprised by how fit he was during that 60 minutes,” he said at his post-match press conference. “But that maybe, probably, tells you that it might be a difference to sign a 20-year-old from a different league or a 25- or 26-year-old that is used to playing in this league.
“Although he only trained for two weeks, he has so many games under his belt that he is probably more able to be ready for 60.
But I was positively surprised how fit he was, I wasn’t surprised by his quality because that’s what we all know.
“You don’t have to be a manager to recognise how much quality he has. But it’s always nice to see if a player starts the way he starts, like Hugo Ekitike [who] started the same as he did.
“Yeah, a good start, only 60 minutes and now we have to build him up from here. But I can tell you he is not going to play 90 again on Saturday.”