Seven months in, Alexander Isak‘s Liverpool career hasn’t properly taken off, but his performance against Crystal Palace was arguably his most influential yet.
Since arriving, Isak has been plagued by fitness issues and is still getting up to speed after nearly a full season at the club.
The lack of a proper pre-season meant the 26-year-old looked off the pace from the start, and breaking his leg in December posed another serious setback to his fitness.
While all eyes are on Isak to perform next season, it would be ideal to see him begin to come to the fore in the final games of this campaign.
Against Crystal Palace, the record signing started his third consecutive match and was clinical in scoring his first Premier League goal at Anfield for the Reds, just his fourth in total this season.
Liverpool's Alexander Isak celebrates scoring his sides opening goal during the Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool. Picture date: Saturday April 25, 2026.
As well as his goal, Isak looked slightly closer to the player we saw at Newcastle, though he is obviously still some way off the force that rattled defences in the north east.
On Saturday, FotMob told us Isak had 18 touches. It may not sound a lot, but it was the most since he came back from injury and double what he managed against Everton.
Three of those touches were inside the penalty area, while he completed six of his 11 passes accurately.
In addition, the Swede was not dispossessed and he made two headed clearances to help his team out.
These aren’t outstanding statistics, but they, along with his heat map, do indicate that the striker was more involved than in previous weeks.
Isak was pleased with the display, too, telling Liverpoolfc.com: “I’ve been battling, getting back to full fitness, and obviously scoring a goal is probably the best way to finding your form again.
“Obviously, I’m really happy.”
Speaking about his goal, which he had to control sharply before finishing in an uncustomary manner, Isak added: “I felt like that shot was not going in so I kind of intercepted it and it became a good touch.
“Then I managed to put it into the back of the net.”
Arne Slot praised his forward, saying: “It’s really nice that he scored one because when we signed him we knew he could score goals and that’s what he showed today.
“Many times this season we’ve had better chances than we had today, that’s why it’s also important to have players that can score also goals like this, because that can give you a big lift in a game.”
Isak is not back to his former self yet and will need pre-season to reach proper match sharpness – that’s the hope, anyway – but as he says, “scoring a goal is probably the best way to finding your form again.”
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