1 touch every 9 minutes: Liverpool player accused of being ‘miles off the pace’ v Galatasaray | OneFootball

One Liverpool player was accused of seeming ‘miles off the pace’ during the sobering defeat to Galatasaray on Tuesday night.

A month on from his British record £125m transfer to the Reds, Alexander Isak has one goal in five appearances for his new club across 238 minutes on the pitch, with the 26-year-old still not looking fully fit after not playing at all over the summer.

Arne Slot has tried to ease the striker into his team, conscious of not rushing back after such a lengthy period of inactivity, but an ineffective outing off the bench at RAMS Park has led to fresh external concerns that the ex-Newcastle marksman is nowhere near getting up to full speed.

Lewis Steele: Isak looked ‘miles off the pace’ v Galatasaray

Writing for Mail Sport, Lewis Steele expressed his worries over Isak’s near-anonymous display against Galatasaray and cited a particularly alarming statistic from last night’s match.

The reporter said: ‘Alexander Isak looks miles off the pace in terms of fitness, managing just four touches off the bench at Galatasaray.

‘That was largely to be expected given the £125m man’s lack of football and pre-season training before his move, but his road to peak condition might be longer than originally envisaged.’

(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Liverpool will need Isak to get up to speed much more quickly

Having not played and barely trained all summer, it always seemed likely that Isak would need a bit of time to get back to peak fitness. A month into his Liverpool career, though, he looks nowhere near rediscovering the levels he showed consistently for Newcastle.

His return of one goal in 238 minutes so far for the Reds pales in comparison with his average of one every 123.11 minutes last season at St James’ Park (27 in 3,324 minutes).

He was brought off the bench in the 62nd minute against Galatasaray, and with eight minutes of time being added on, it meant that he touched the ball just four times in 36 minutes on the pitch, one for every nine minutes that he played (Sofascore).

Last night’s match rather passed him by, and even allowing for the lack of a proper pre-season, Slot will have been worried about how peripheral Isak was after he replaced Cody Gakpo.

Depending on how long Hugo Ekitike is sidelined after he went off injured in Istanbul, Liverpool could be hugely dependent on their record signing to compensate for the in-form Frenchman’s absence and quickly start to show why the Premier League champions spent £125m to sign him.

With matches against Chelsea and Manchester United coming up either side of the international break, those two fixtures would be the perfect time for the 26-year-old to truly kickstart his Reds career.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Galatasaray press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: