No more excuses: Alexander Isak must start showing why Liverpool spent £125m to sign star striker

Isak leaving Newcastle for Liverpool was the story of the summer, a transfer that was as acrimonious as it was protracted. Everyone had an opinion on it - but not everyone had "the whole picture", according to the Swede.

"I can't control everything that is said or written," Isak said of the bitter backlash to his successful strike. "There is a lot to discuss, and it can be discussed for a long time. But it has been educational, and I'm happy with the final result. I'm proud to be a Liverpool player. I don't want to go into details or talk about that situation too much. It is a closed chapter, but I have never had any problems."

Unfortunately for Isak, Liverpool and indeed Sweden, he's had plenty of problems since forcing through his move to Merseyside.

During his first interview with his new club, Isak admitted that he wasn't entirely sure when he would be physically capable of making his Liverpool debut. "I've had a tricky summer," he said - which was obviously putting it mildly. 

Because of his refusal to even participate in Newcastle's pre-season friendlies, let alone their opening three Premier League fixtures (one of which was against the reigning champions), Isak joined Liverpool without having played a single second of football for more than three months. Their shared "ambition" was for the forward to feature in the first Premier League game after the September international break, against Burnley, but even though he saw 18 minutes of action in Sweden's World Cup qualifier in Kosovo, Slot decided against risking Isak at Turf Moor.

"We got him from Newcastle in a state where you could say his pre-season was only going to start then," the Dutchman told reporters after Liverpool's 1-0 win on September 14. "He needs proper minutes of training before he has a certain base, let alone for him to play twice in three days. So, that's what we do, we try to prepare players for the beginning of the season once a week, and then we try to do more and more and more before we go into the rhythm of two games a week, so that they are ready for that schedule."

Despite adopting a wisely cautious approach with Isak, Slot threw him straight into the starting line-up for Liverpool's Champions League opener against Atletico Madrid four days later and even the manager was taken aback by how well it went.

"I wasn't surprised by his quality, as we know all about that, but I was positively surprised by how fit Alexander was during his 60 minutes," Slot told TNT Sports. "But that maybe tells you that it might be different to sign a 20-year-old from a different league than a 25-year-old used to playing in the Premier League.

"Although he only trained for two weeks, he has so many games under his belt [at the highest level]. One of the things you need if you want to compete for the Premier League and the cups is mentality, fitness and quality and, today, we saw all of that."

However, if Slot thought that Isak was going to get back up to speed quicker than expected, he would be sorely mistaken.

Isak may have opened his Liverpool account with a characteristically neat finish in the Carabao Cup win over Southampton on September 23, but that remains his only goal of the season so far, and that's in spite of the fact that he started three consecutive Premier League games between September 27 and October 19 - all of which were lost.

The 26-year-old may have registered an assist in the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea on October 4, but it was an attempt to control the ball for himself rather than an intentional lay-off for goal-scorer Cody Gakpo. The sad fact of the matter was that in complete contrast to fellow forward Hugo Ekitike, who had hit the ground running after his summer switch from Eintracht Frankfurt, Isak still looked miles off the pace of the Premier League. Unsurprisingly, sympathy was in short supply - and not just on Tyneside.

"It was unprofessional and naive not just to down tools, but to sacrifice his match fitness for whoever he was going to play for," former Liverpool attacker Don Hutchison told onlinecasion.com. "I think he’s been managed and advised really badly by his agent all summer, but it comes down to the player, ultimately. He’s under contract with Newcastle, he owes them fitness and professionalism.

"Bigger picture, if you end up at Liverpool, you have to [be ready to] hit the ground running. Now he's playing catch-up and it's because of how he behaved."

Given the increasingly negative narrative surrounding Isak, the last thing Liverpool needed was the most expensive player in club history to suffer an injury setback. The groin problem that forced him off at half-time in the Champions League clash with Eintracht Frankfurt on October 22 was always going to be linked to his lack of match fitness, and even Slot admitted that it was a consequence of the "difficult balance" the Reds were trying to strike while effectively putting a player through a pre-season programme in the middle of a campaign.

"When he came, he had hardly trained, so you bring him step by step forward and then you feel there must be a moment where he can play twice a week," Slot said after the 5-1 win in Germany. "But the first time we tried it, he had to go off. Many people told me they wanted me to play him more, but we had to find the balance and unfortunately that balance didn't work out for us today. Let's hope for the best."

The hope now (and it really is hope rather than expectation) is that Isak will make his return to Premier League action in Saturday's must-win meeting with Nottingham Forest at Anfield.

After being named on the bench for the loss at Manchester City on November 9, Isak had been optimistic about his chances of playing a significant role in Sweden's two World Cup qualifiers during the latest international break. However, he only came on for the final half-hour of the 4-1 loss in Switzerland and new coach Graham Potter ultimately decided against fielding him in the dead rubber against Slovenia on Tuesday because he was concerned about the attacker picking up a booking that would have ruled him out of the country's play-off semi-final against Ukraine in March.

Isak is effectively back at square one, then. He quite clearly needs a run of games (and goals), but it's presently impossible to make a case for the Swede starting ahead of Ekitike - who scored his first goal for France last week - at a time when Slot's side are struggling and, thus, in no position to carry any passengers during a crucial run of fixtures that are absolutely imperative to them kickstarting their campaign.

Of course, one could argue that Ekitike's form will at least allow Slot to ease Isak back into action and, in fairness to the former Feyenoord coach, he has insisted all along that Liverpool were always going to need two top strikers this season to cope with the strain of trying to defend their Premier League title while simultaneously attempting to better last season's run to the last 16 of the Champions League.

At the same time, though, Slot has also acknowledged that he needs to get "Alex playing as many games as he can as soon as possible", meaning that "difficult" balancing act isn't going to get any easier in the coming weeks and months. On the contrary, the pressure on Slot to get Isak fit and firing is only going to intensify. Liverpool can't really afford to have a £125m signing sitting on the bench - or worse, in the stands.

Encouragingly, Isak said he feels physically ready to "play properly" after getting 28 minutes of game time in Geneva last Saturday and remains in a positive frame of mind.

"The preparation hasn't been optimal," he confessed to Sportbladet. "But, when I'm on the field, I don't give myself any excuses." Which is just as well really, because they'd only fall on deaf ears. Patience is already wearing thin with the third-most expensive player in football history. It's high time for Isak to start proving his worth.