Liverpool FC v Atletico de Madrid - UEFA Champions League 2025 26 League Phase MD1 LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 17: Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak of Liverpool during the UEFA Champions League 2025 26 League Phase MD1 match between Liverpool FC and Atletico de Madrid at Anfield on September 17, 2025 in Liverpool, England. ***Local Caption*** Mohamed Salah; Alexander Isak Liverpool Anfield England United Kingdom Copyright: xVisionhausx 776379891
Liverpool FC v Atletico de Madrid - UEFA Champions League 2025 26 League Phase MD1 LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 17: Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak of Liverpool during the UEFA Champions League 2025 26 League Phase MD1 match between Liverpool FC and Atletico de Madrid at Anfield on September 17, 2025 in Liverpool, England. ***Local Caption*** Mohamed Salah; Alexander Isak Liverpool Anfield England United Kingdom Copyright: xVisionhausx 776379891
The thinking behind the most expensive signing in British football history has finally come to light, and it centres on a call Liverpool’s hierarchy made about how to plan for life after Mohamed Salah.
According to Jonathan Northcroft of The Times, a senior figure at the club as at the time concluded that searching for another wide forward capable of matching Salah’s output was a hopeless task, and argued instead that the safest route to goals was to sign the best centre forward on the market.
Michael Edwards, former Fenway Sports Group’s chief executive of football, persuaded the owners to break the British transfer record and pay Newcastle United £125 million for Alexander Isak on deadline day in September 2025.
Northcroft reports that there were never any doubts inside the club about Isak’s quality, with the main concern being whether the Sweden striker could adapt to a role in which he would see less of the ball in general play while still carrying the expectation of scoring heavily.
Those worries looked justified for much of his first season, because Isak arrived without a proper preseason after training largely alone, struggled to find his rhythm under Arne Slot and managed four goals in 22 appearances, before suffering a fractured fibula and ankle damage while scoring at Tottenham on 20 December that kept him out until April.
He missed 28 matches in total and played just 1,033 minutes across that campaign, while Liverpool finished fifth, Slot was dismissed and Salah departed in the summer, leaving Edwards’ reasoning to be tested properly this season.
Fourteen months on from his arrival, the gamble is finally paying off, with Isak scoring six of Liverpool’s 11 Premier League goals this term, a tally bettered only by Erling Haaland, while averaging 0.95 goals per 90 minutes under Andoni Iraola.
Opta’s figures show those six goals have come in his last six league matches and account for two thirds of the team’s goals in that spell, underlining how central he has become to an attack now built around a number nine rather than a wide forward.
Iraola has been clear about what he expects, saying after Isak’s brace inside nine minutes at Ipswich in September that if the striker is fit and in good shape, he will produce the numbers.
The next test comes this afternoon, when Arsenal visit Anfield at 4.30pm with the meanest defence in the division, having conceded only five league goals and kept five clean sheets, but Isak has scored in two of his last three appearances against the Gunners and carries Liverpool’s hopes of cutting the gap to the champions to three points.
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Trent Alexander-Arnold of Real Madrid CF looks on during the UEFA Champions League 2026/27 League Phase MD1 match between Real Madrid CF and FC Internazionale Milano at Berabeu stadium on September 08, 2026, in Madrid, Spain.
Trent Alexander-Arnold of Real Madrid CF looks on during the UEFA Champions League 2026/27 League Phase MD1 match between Real Madrid CF and FC Internazionale Milano at Berabeu stadium on September 08, 2026, in Madrid, Spain.