How Alexander Isak fared on debuts for previous clubs – including a goal at Anfield | OneFootball

There’s only one candidate for the standout piece of Liverpool team news for tonight’s Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid – a Reds debut for Alexander Isak!

The £125m deadline day signing wasn’t in the matchday squad for the Merseysiders’ win at Burnley last Sunday, as Arne Slot felt that the Swedish striker needed more time on the training ground, having played just 18 minutes of football since the end of May.

However, just three days later, the LFC head coach is satisfied that the 25-year-old is fit enough to go straight into the starting XI for the fixture against Diego Simeone’s side.

Liverpool are the sixth club of Isak’s senior career, but how did he fare on his debuts for the previous five? There’s one in particular that we’re sure you’ll recall.

(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Alexander Isak debuts for previous clubs

AIK Solna (6-0 v Tenhult, 28/2/2016)

On the day that Liverpool lost the League Cup final to Manchester City on penalties in the early months of Jurgen Klopp’s reign, a 16-year-old Isak was sprung from the bench for the last quarter-hour of a Swedish Cup tie against fourth-tier Tenhult.

It took him just 11 minutes to become the youngest scorer in the Stockholm club’s history…a sign of things to come!

Borussia Dortmund (3-0 v Sportsfreunde Lotte, 14/3/2017)

Just over a year later, the Swede’s debut for Dortmund was also in a cup clash against a team from a lower league.

That also ended in victory for his team, but he only came on for the final four minutes and wasn’t on the scoresheet – he would net just once in a mere 13 appearances during an abortive stint with the Bundesliga giants.

(Photo by Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images)

Willem II (1-0 v Utrecht, 27/1/2019)

Isak joined Dutch outfit Willem II on loan midway through the 2018/19 season, and his first appearance for the club was again as a substitute. This time it came in a league fixture and lasted for half an hour, although he didn’t find the net in his team’s 1-0 victory.

After failing to score in his first three games in Tilburg, he went on to net 14 times in the next 14 during his loan spell in Netherlands (Transfermarkt).

Real Sociedad (1-1 v Valencia, 17/8/2019)

Isak made a permanent transfer to Real Sociedad later that year and netted in his first pre-season game with the Basque side, although he didn’t repeat the trick on his official debut for the club.

It came in a 1-1 draw away to Valencia at the start of the 2019/20 LaLiga campaign, when the Swede replaced Adnan Januzaj for the final 20 minutes at the Mestalla, and his team netted a dramatic 101st-minute equaliser thanks to a Mikel Oyarzabal penalty.

Newcastle (1-2 v Liverpool, 31/8/2022)

Three years later, Isak’s Newcastle debut came at Anfield in an early-season Premier League fixture, and he opened the scoring shortly before half-time that night with a stylish finish.

He had the ball in the net a second time but that goal was disallowed for offside – a crucial decision on a night when Fabio Carvalho scored Liverpool’s winner in the eighth minute of stoppage time, sparking a row between the two sets of coaching staff.