'Like playing with 10 men': New SCAPEGOAT emerges over Liverpool struggles | OneFootball

Right now Liverpool are a shambles. There’s no getting away from that.

The defending Premier League champions have lost six of their last seven matches. It’s hard to know where to start when it comes to solving their problems.

Almost every element of the team is malfunctioning - from defending to getting the ball to the attackers, from set-pieces to finishing.

Arne Slot has a hell of a job on his hads to re-align the season - especially after a damaging 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest last weekend.

Alexander Isak is struggling

There has been a singular failure to successfully integrate the club’s new signings into the Premier League title-winning squad.

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Richard Hughes spent £450m on new players over the summer and barely any have made an impact thus far. The British transfer record was broken twice - first for Florian Wirtz and again for Alexander Isak.

But those deals aren’t working out - with the £125m deal for Isak now in the spotlight.

Liverpool will have expected more from a striker who scored 23 Premier League goals for Newcastle last season. The club fought long and hard to make Isak their No9 but he has scored only once across nine appearances.

That goal came in the EFL Cup against second-tier Southampton - and in top-flight action Isak has looked well short of his best form.

Last weekend he was again a marginal figure in the Forest defeat and right now it’s hard to imagine that this is the most expensive player in British football history.

But it does now appear that Isak is being made a scapegoat for Liverpool’s many problems.

Isak is a passenger says LFC insider

“Playing with Isak is like playing with 10 men,” a report from Liverpool insider Lewis Steele reads.

“He is a passenger. The Swede looks like an academy kid drafted into a men's game, fighting against the tide.”

Yes, Isak could and should have more involvement but it’s not necessarily all his fault. The Sweden international arrived on transfer deadline day unfit - and it was always going to take some time to get him up to match fitness.

But he was then injured towards the end of October - at the time when Reds’ in-house experts predicted he would come good. That was a big setback - and his recent struggles at international level won’t have helped either.

Isak is just one player though and he is a victim of Liverpool’s poor form - not necessarily the cause of it.

© IMAGO - Alexander Isak Liverpool

Isak is NOT to blame for Liverpool form

It doesn’t matter who plays centre-forward right now as Liverpool are simply not getting the ball to the player in that position. Hugo Ekitike has fallen off in recent weeks too - emphasising that this isn’t an Isak problem.

It’s a complete malfunction. Whether Liverpool are missing Trent Alexander-Arnold’s vision or Luis Diaz’s penetration is a discussion for elsewhere.

However it is clear that this is an overall squad problem – which has got to be solved by Slot. The team is not creating enough meaningful opportunities for Isak to be properly involved in the game.

And given his fitness trouble - he deserves time to work it out. Liverpool have got to be patient with a player who signed for six seasons - not six months.

There needs to be a recognition that this current setup isn’t favouring Isak. In fact it’s not favouring anybody. That’s on Slot to find a solution. In the meantime, lay off the record signing until he gets things right.