{"id":141839,"date":"2025-09-16T19:42:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/141839\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T19:42:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:42:17","slug":"alexander-isak-is-complete-striker-virgil-van-dijk-says-enjoy-being-the-no-9-liverpool-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/141839\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Isak is “complete striker” – Virgil van Dijk says “enjoy being the No. 9!” – Liverpool FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virgil van Dijk<\/a> has been left hugely impressed with Alexander Isak<\/a>\u2018s first week of training, praising him as \u201cthe complete striker\u201d ahead of his Liverpool debut.<\/p>\n

Isak is now a full week into training at Liverpool, having reported to the AXA Training Centre following international duty with Sweden earlier this month.<\/p>\n

While he was left out of the squad for the 1-0 win at Burnley<\/a> over the weekend, the 25-year-old is expected to make his debut \u2013 perhaps from the start \u2013 against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Liverpool\u2019s pre-match press conference, Van Dijk gave his first impressions of his new teammate and outlined how he needs to adjust.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery good, very eager. Obviously the quality he\u2019s been showing already since the first session, from what I\u2019ve heard and seen. So, only positive,\u201d the captain told reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOff the pitch as well, we have conversations. I spoke to him during the international break when everything was sorted.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him it\u2019s about getting as fit as possible as quickly as possible, get to understand each one of us as quickly as possible; how we train, how we press, set-pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a good week for him and let\u2019s see tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whenever Isak does make his first outing for Liverpool, all eyes will be on the centre-forward after his controversial departure from Newcastle<\/a> on deadline day.<\/p>\n

Newcastle<\/a> reluctantly agreed to his departure for a British record \u00a3125 million, with Van Dijk recognising the outside pressure on him to perform.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe comes with the price tag, and the price tag we have no control over,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I totally understand from the outside world there will always be talks about that, and that creates sort of pressure, but it\u2019s down to him \u2013 and obviously with us \u2013 that we don\u2019t speak about those kinds of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to perform, we want to show we have the quality to play on the highest level, to play for Liverpool, to play Champions League<\/a> football, hopefully for him to score a lot of goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s it. Just work hard, enjoy being the No. 9 for Liverpool and be important for the group with the goals, assists, link-up play, help others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the only thing you have influence on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, Van Dijk and the majority of the Liverpool squad were already familiar with what Isak offers as a player \u2013 having scored four goals in his six appearances against the Reds in the past.<\/p>\n

Asked what he learned from marking his new teammate, Van Dijk compared him to another summer signing in Hugo Ekitike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously he\u2019s a clinical finisher. I think if you look at his finishing skills, heading, left, right, top corners, he\u2019s the complete striker at the moment,\u201d the Dutchman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the same you can say for Hugo. They\u2019re maybe a little bit different, but not as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey both have so much quality, they are very comfortable on the ball so they can link play, they have pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s basically what\u2019s being asked nowadays from the modern-day striker.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth are a handful and it\u2019s obviously good they are on my side now, so hopefully they can show that in the next games and the whole year for the opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virgil van Dijk has been left hugely impressed with Alexander Isak\u2018s first week of training, praising him as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,134,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-141839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}