Andoni Iraola's Vision for Alexander Isak at Liverpool

Andoni Iraola is under no illusions about Alexander Isak. The Liverpool head coach knows the Swede will score. That part is not in doubt. What he wants now is a centre-forward who can knit his team together as well as finish attacks.

With Hugo Ekitike still sidelined after Achilles surgery and Mohamed Salah gone, Isak stands alone as Liverpool’s only recognised central striker. His importance to this new-look side could hardly be clearer.

Last season never really got going for him at Anfield. A broken leg at Tottenham just before Christmas split his debut campaign in two and left him scrambling for rhythm. He finished with only 12 starts from 22 appearances and four goals, just one of them after that injury. For a player of his calibre, those numbers jar.

Iraola, though, is looking beyond the raw tally.

“Alex is going to be a very important player for us this season,” he said. “Right now he is in a very good place; he has been training every day, he has not missed a session, he has been adding more and more minutes every friendly game.

“He played a very good World Cup in terms of availability, fitness level, and I want to keep him there as much as we can.

“We know his level and if we can keep him there he will score the goals and give us a lot of things.”

The goals are expected. The evolution comes in everything around them.

Isak, Wirtz and a new attacking axis

Florian Wirtz’s return to his natural No. 10 role could transform Liverpool’s attacking shape. Under Arne Slot, the German was shuffled across positions; under Iraola, he is back in the pocket, where he can connect with Isak and drive the game between the lines.

Isak’s understanding with Wirtz will be central to how Liverpool attack this season. Not just in the box, but in the spaces that appear before the final pass.

“Probably my fight with him, my instructions, are more in terms of without the ball and how he can help in his position when we are with the ball so he can open spaces for other players,” Iraola explained.

“I am not trying to focus in terms of goals but he is a striker, he will want to score, but I try not to judge the strikers if they score or if they haven't.”

Pressing, angles, movement to drag centre-backs away, combinations with Wirtz and the wingers – Iraola wants a complete forward, not just a penalty-box poacher.

Hostile return to Newcastle

If Isak needs extra fuel, Sunday provides it. Liverpool open their Premier League campaign at Newcastle, the club he left in acrimonious fashion after effectively going on strike last summer to force through his move to Anfield.

He will not be welcomed back gently.

Iraola, though, refused to dress the fixture up as a personal saga.

“I suppose it is always special when you play against your ex-team in their stadium – in the same way when I go back to Bournemouth you always want to do well,” he said.

“The first game of the season everyone will be very motivated and I think it is going to be the same for Alex.”

The noise at St James’ Park will be fierce. How Isak handles it, as the lone spearhead of Liverpool’s attack, will say plenty about where he is mentally as well as physically.

Thin cover and a Gakpo question

Behind him, the depth chart is worryingly short.

Ekitike is not expected back until around the new year. Recruitment has focused on wide players, with Liverpool seeing a second £60 million bid rejected for Brighton’s Yankubu Minteh. Until something breaks in the market, Iraola has to find internal solutions.

One of them is Cody Gakpo. The Dutchman has been linked with an unlikely move to Tottenham, a rumour that jars with Liverpool’s lack of forward options. Inside the club, he remains a possible Plan B through the middle, a role he performed under Jurgen Klopp.

“In pre-season we haven't tried as we don't have enough wingers and we prioritised what we need from him in his preferred position as a left-winger,” Iraola said.

“But I have been talking to him about his minutes as a nine; he has done it before and in certain situations he could help us in the nine position.”

For now, though, everything points back to Isak. His fitness, his partnership with Wirtz, his ability to stretch defences and still arrive in the box to finish. Liverpool’s season starts in a storm at Newcastle. If Iraola gets his way, it will also mark the start of Isak’s shift from pure finisher to the complete centre-forward this team desperately needs.