Liverpool striker Alexander Isak has been backed to come good by Wayne Rooney, but Mark Lawrenson believes the Swede should be dropped in favour of Hugo Ekitike
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 22: Alexander Isak of Liverpool looks dejected during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Anfield on November 22, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Liverpool striker Alexander Isak(Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
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Alexander Isak has endured a torrid time since his British record £130m switch from Newcastle United to Liverpool during the summer transfer window.
The 26-year-old forward completed his Anfield move on deadline day following a controversial exit from St James' Park, where he downed tools to engineer a transfer to the Premier League champions.
His preparations were already hampered after spending the summer working out in isolation, and he's been trying to make up ground ever since. His sole strike for the Reds came during the Carabao Cup victory over Southampton.
Isak was handed his first start in a month at the weekend against Nottingham Forest, but it proved to be another disappointing display.
The performance was so lacklustre that Arne Slot has faced pressure to axe the striker for tonight's Champions League encounter with PSV.
However, despite those demands, former Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney reckons the Sweden international requires a sequence of matches to rediscover his finest form, though he acknowledged he'd be livid if he were Hugo Ekitike.
"The new players coming in will be looking at the players from last season and thinking, 'oh they've just won the league' and probably feel a bit more pressure that they have to try to do . . . they probably want to try to prove that they are better than those players," he said on The Wayne Rooney Show on BBC Sport,
"There will be a bit more pressure, and obviously it's a big club, but I think Alexander Isak just needs a run of games.
"He just needs any type of goal to get him going and I'm sure he'll find a good run of form after that. But he'll be scratching his head. It's hard when you're going through a run of games and not scoring. You just have to try to keep everything simple.
"None of them [summer signings] have really paid off apart from Hugo Ekitike. If I was Ekitike, I'd be fuming if I wasn't playing."
Meanwhile, former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson, speaking on talkSPORT, has called on Reds manager Slot to drop Isak and give Ekitike a chance, declaring: "He [Isak] is not fit. Ekitike should be back in the team," reports the Liverpool Echo.
"How does he feel? He's been the best of the two strikers. But the problem is, how do you get players fit if they can't play in reserve games or anything?".
"All you do is train and if you're only training, it's not the same, you're about 25 per cent less than players in front of you."
Speaking about Slot, Lawrenson continued: "It's one of those with the manager, he's under pressure but his job's safe. There's no doubt about that whatsoever.
"You've just got to get the players together and go, 'We start at 0-0 and make sure the nil is against us'. Until you start making yourself difficult to beat, the way we are at the moment, we just concede for fun."