‘Forgot he was playing’ – ESPN pundit says one man for Liverpool was ‘invisible’ v Sunderland | OneFootball

Steve Nicol delivered a damning quip about one Liverpool player following the 1-1 draw against Sunderland on Wednesday night.

It was yet another frustrating day at Anfield for the Reds, who needed a late Nordi Mukiele own goal and a heroic stoppage-time block from Federico Chiesa just to salvage a point against Regis Le Bris’ side.

The ex-LFC defender accused Virgil van Dijk of not leading by example during the match, and he was also left ‘disappointed’ by the performance of Alexander Isak against the Black Cats, albeit with some sympathy for the Swedish striker.

Nicol: Isak was ‘invisible’ against Sunderland

In his post-match reflections on ESPN FC, Nicol described the £125m marksman as ‘invisible’ last night, though he believes that the 26-year-old also needs more help from his teammates.

The pundit said: “Anybody who watches Isak right now is disappointed in the way he’s performing, but your centre-forward relies on others more than anybody else, and he’s getting absolutely nothing.

“I don’t remember one chance that Liverpool had in this game – or the last three, four, five games – where you’re saying they should’ve scored…from that point of view, I do still feel a little bit for [Florian] Wirtz and Isak.

“I think the majority of the blame lies elsewhere, but I can’t argue with what you said. He was absolutely invisible. I actually forgot he was playing at one stage in the second half.”

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Liverpool need more from Isak

Having finally opened his Premier League scoring account for Liverpool last weekend, Kopites would’ve been hoping that Isak would follow it up with another impactful outing against Sunderland, but sadly that wasn’t the case for the ex-Newcastle striker.

His only shot of note was a first-half effort which was horribly high and wide, and he completed a pitiful two passes in 86 minutes on the pitch, along with giving away three free kicks, losing four of his six duels and touching the ball only 14 times (Sofascore).

While we take Nicol’s point about centre-forwards requiring ample service, the Sweden international allowed the game to pass him by, something he can’t afford to do when he’s cost £125m and still has so much to prove in a red shirt.

He could’ve been excused to some extent in the first few weeks of the season as fitness problems prevented him from striking an on-field chemistry with his teammates, but you’d have hoped to at least see discernible signs of that by now.

Unfortunately, Isak turned in the kind of performance which’d leave him with no complaints if Arne Slot were to bench him in favour of Hugo Ekitike against Leeds on Saturday.

Perhaps the Swede needs more from his teammates in terms of service into the penalty area, but Liverpool also need more from him in terms of his all-round play.