Interview with Robbie Fowler about Liverpool’s summer plans and getting the best out of Alexander Isak next season
Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike have struggled as a partnership for Liverpool this season(Image: (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images))
Robbie Fowler believes Liverpool head into the summer transfer window needing “five or six players as a minimum” to improve on a difficult campaign.
And the Reds legend believes the key will be adding the profiles in wide areas that will unlock the potential of £200m duo Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike at centre-forward.
Liverpool made Isak the most expensive player in British football history when they signed him from Newcastle United for £125m on September 1 last year. That deal, which saw Isak agitate to leave Newcastle by effectively going on strike, followed the £79m capture of Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt in July.
Ekitike finished his maiden campaign as top scorer at Anfield with 17 goals but the France international suffered an Achilles rupture in April and will be sidelined for months of the new campaign, which begins in August.
Reflecting on a season that saw Liverpool lose 19 times across all competitions under Arne Slot, former striker Fowler says he hopes the club will be busy this transfer window and deems it imperative to prioritise wingers who can supply Isak and Ekitike for the long term.
“I mean the priority, for me, I think we probably need about five or six players as a minimum,” Fowler told the ECHO. “If you look at some of the benches we’ve had this season, they’ve been quite weak compared to the first team.
“So I think we are at the moment probably where we were a couple of years ago where we needed players to come into the team and the squad. If you’re looking at it from a Liverpool fan’s perspective I’d be amazed if it’s not five players as a minimum.”
Fowler added: “It’ll be interesting because the players coming in, they (Ekitike, Isak and Florian Wirtz) have been here a year now and they will know what is expected and they will probably understand what Liverpool is all about.
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“But I refer back to pre-season, the form we have seen from them at their previous clubs, they are all neat and tidy players but they have obviously come in with a plan from (CEO of football) Michael Edwards and (sporting director) Richard Hughes, who have sat down and earmarked where they are going to play.
“I’d be amazed if there is not a conversation over where new players are going to fit into a system because if you are spending £200m upwards on strikers then you’ve got to have the players who can supply them.
“Now if you have a team plan or formation that indicates that wide players will cut inside all the time then that is not conducive to spending £200m on strikers.
“For me, there’s obviously something that needs to be done in terms of getting players in that far end of the pitch who can supply crosses by going on the outside, as well as players up that end of the pitch who can cut inside.
“That’s why maybe this year, I mean ‘write-off’ is probably a wrong phrase, but Isak was available, Ekitike was available, so obviously you’ve signed players for £200m there.
“So it seems crazy that you’re picking those players and you haven’t got someone there who can get to the byline and put balls into the box for these strikers to attack,
“If you’re playing up front and cutting inside all the time where all the defensive bodies are then it’s hard and difficult.
“Not only for the wingers to find the forward but also the forward is then feeding off scraps. So, for me, it’s obvious if you spend £200m then you get [more] players who are not afraid to go that way [down the line] rather than cutting inside all the time.”
With Liverpool’s third highest scorer of all time, Mohamed Salah, departing as a free agent, much of the burden for goals will now fall on Isak’s shoulders, particularly while Isak remains sidelined with his long-term lay-off next season.
The Sweden international endured a miserable time on Merseyside in his first term, arriving unfit on the back of how his exit from Newcastle played out, before a leg break in December sidelined him for four months.
But as the No.9 gets set to represent Sweden at the World Cup next month, Fowler believes it can be the start of a period that sees Isak in peak form for next season.
Fowler, who was speaking in association with Ladbrokes, said: “The pressure of the signing will obviously play on him a little bit. I think he got injured at the wrong time for him because it did look like he was getting a little bit of form.
“I am probably a bit disappointed in terms of the length of time it took for him to get that at the start of the season, it tells you the impact the [lack of] pre-season had on him.
“So it is of the utmost importance now coming into Liverpool, it’s a big club – we know – but we as former Liverpool players know that you have to hit the ground running.
“He hasn’t done that, has he? The World Cup is big for him, it could prove to be a confidence-booster for him, depending on how well Sweden do.
“But then you sort of worry about him coming into a pre-season period on the back of a World Cup where he wouldn’t get the pre-season we’d all want him to because that is probably what he has lacked since he signed at Liverpool.
“It’s never easy. I was quite fortunate where I was able to score goals before injuries, and Alexander has not really been in that position yet at Liverpool. So it is maybe a bit different, because I didn’t really feel the pressure as such.
“He might be a little bit different because he hasn’t been the player we brought to the club and again injuries have played a part in that.
“I’ve no doubt he will perform and play well and score goals for Liverpool. But I think the importance of him getting his body right before he plays games is massive.
“Again, you look at the World Cup and I am not saying he should use that as a stepping stone because it is the World Cup but at least when we were playing, there was a progression of game-time to get back into the team when you had been injured and I think he has lacked that.
“Years ago, we had the B team, the reserves and the first team. Nowadays, you have the first team and the Under-21s.
“So if you are injured, you’re not necessarily getting the game time needed to get back into the first team environment. For me, he is a player who looks like he needs to play games before we can see the best of him.”