Just when you think Liverpool have turned a corner, Arne Slot’s Reds ended up falling apart on their Premier League travels to Manchester City.
In the build-up to this showdown between two top-flight heavyweights, Liverpool had managed to collect two wins from their last two games in all competitions to ease concerns of a crisis occurring at Anfield.
However, football is a fickle old game, with the alarm bells ringing once more now, as City strolled to a 3-0 victory on their own patch.
Unfortunately, that demoralising defeat means Liverpool are already eight points behind Arsenal at the summit, as the likes of Mohamed Salah and Hugo Ekitike continue to underwhelm in attack.
The former Eintracht Frankfurt marksman was branded an “anonymous” figure by Statman Dave after failing to fire a single effort on the City goal.
Still, it’s not as if Alexander Isak is banging down the door to replace the misfiring attacker…
Inside Isak's disappointing start at Liverpool
Isak remain rooted to the substitutes bench throughout the 3-0 defeat, with the Swede hoping he can get his Liverpool career up and running after the international break.
So far, the £125m summer recruit has been sparingly used, owing to a lack of pre-season being handed to him at former employers Newcastle United, with the expensive striker yet to break his Premier League duck for Slot and Co.
It’s way too early in his Anfield career to dismiss him as an extortionate flop, though, with Isak undoubtedly a Premier League goal machine when playing at his razor-sharp best, as seen when watching his 54-goal tally for the Toon.
But, he will need to start living up to his previous billing of being the “best striker in the Premier League”, a tag handed to him by ex-Liverpool great Jamie Carragher, particularly if Ekitike continues to also fail to recapture his own goal-scoring groove.
Slot does have other options up his sleeve in this frustrating lone striker spot if needs be, with an emerging 17-year-old talent at Anfield potentially in line to be the number 9 of the future.
Liverpool are brewing a mini Alexander Isak
The number 9 jersey at Liverpool is a shirt steeped in significant history, with Ian Rush becoming synonymous with that number when scoring an all-time best on Merseyside of 346 goals.
Moreover, in more recent times, Fernando Torres took on the weighty shirt and thrived, bagging 81 strikes from 142 games.
Unfortunately, Isak is going down the route of being remembered more as a Darwin Nunez-style figure now donning the number nine, who mustered up a weak 40 goals in total in England.
Who will be the next legendary 9? Well, a teenager by the name of Will Wright – a young individual being heralded as the “next Michael Owen” in some circles – will be praying it could be him.
Ian Rush
654
346
Robbie Fowler
369
183
Ian St. John
424
118
Fernando Torres
142
81
Darwin Nunez
143
40
Indeed, the young striker sensation has already been branded as a “great finisher” by Reds journalist Bence Boscak when plying his trade for League Two outfit Salford City while Total Football Analysis have suggested that he has ‘many of the characteristics to be a top-level centre-forward’.
In the academy ranks last season at the Ammies, Wright fired home a stunning 40 goals, which certainly shows off a striker capable of one day reaching Isak’s Newcastle heights in the senior set-up. It’s for that reason that the aforementioned Bocask believes he is a “brilliant signing.”
He even featured in pre-season under Slot when Athletic Club travelled to Anfield, with one big chance spurned when thrust into the thick of the action.
Arsenal reportedly had their eyes on the clinical youngster before Wright decided to move to Merseyside over North London, with the hope that he could live up to his early promise and become Liverpool’s next free-flowing number nine.
Injuries have curtailed his U21 minutes as of late, with the 17-year-old now out of action until December with a knee problem.
But, when he’s back, don’t write off a sudden rise into the first team scene that’s similar to Rio Ngumoha’s explosion, with the misfiring duo of Ekitike and Isak, also kept on their toes by some fresh blood.
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ByTom Cunningham