Alexander Isak called out by Liverpool icon as misfiring £125m striker told he's 'huffing and puffing' but not making himself 'a menace'

Isak was the standout performer for Newcastle during his previous three seasons in the Premier League, as he consistently scored for the Magpies and even helped win a historic Carabao Cup last year, scoring as they beat Liverpool in the final. The forward also helped the club finish fifth in the table, which secured them a place in the Champions League this year.

The 26-year-old arrived at Anfield in a grand manner on deadline day, but his first few months at Liverpool have proven turbulent. On Merseyside, the striker has scored just one goal in eight appearances across all competitions and he recently also suffered an injury setback, which ruled him out of the club's latest Premier League clash against Brentford. Isak's dip in form has also affected the Reds' performances, with Arne Slot's side now on a four-game losing streak in the English top-flight.

Former England Liverpool forward Emile Heskey shared his opinion on the club's record signing, as he told 10bet Casino: "The thing for me is when you are not scoring goals, you need to still contribute to games. We've seen ups and downs with Mo Salah, who has scored so many goals. But when he does not score, he will want to be contributing more. My view was, the fundamental thing you can do is work hard, run around, and frustrate defenders. The defence starts at the front. I was told this at Leicester, I was told this at Liverpool, because they had the best defender who played up front - Ian Rush. And he was just a menace to defenders. Fundamentally, you have to get that right, and everything else will follow."

Heskey added: "It looks like his fitness is not quite where it should be. It looks like he’s huffing and puffing a bit, so he just needs to get his fitness up a bit to put in the graft that is needed at the highest level. It’s fascinating because at the highest level, you believe you get more time on the ball so you need to do less work. But in fact, you have to do more work. When I was playing, Cesc Fabregas was the one who did the most running. Now, Arsenal were having  60-70% of the ball, so why was he doing the most running? Because he wanted it more than the others."

Heskey also shared some valuable suggestions for Isak, as he added: "The only way to get that match fitness back is in training, and obviously when thrown into games, work even harder. I saw Andy Robertson talking about them needing to work harder to get the best out of themselves. They’re great players. They’ve shown it time and time again. It’s there, they need to unlock it by working harder."

Slot will hope that his side recover from this setback and work on their shortcomings to regain their form from the start of the season, where they won seven matches in a row. A series of home matches against Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup, Aston Villa in the Premier League and Real Madrid in the Champions League provides the Reds with the ideal opportunity to get back to winning ways.

On Wednesday, Slot's men host Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup and the Merseysiders aim to seek revenge after going down twice already against the Eagles in the 2025-26 campaign.