The debate over how we rebuild our season took another twist this week as one of our former defenders offered a blunt assessment of Liverpool’s striker dilemma.Lawrenson questions Isak as Liverpool consider striker balanceAlexander Isak tackles Elliot Anderson(Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)According to talkSPORT (via the Liverpool Echo), Mark Lawrenson believes it is time for Arne Slot to make a firm call on Alexander Isak as the £125 million signing continues to look short of sharpness following his disrupted pre-season.Speaking on the radio station, he said: “He [Isak] is not fit. Ekitike should be back in the team.”It was a pointed claim, especially when the same interview stressed that “he’s been the best of the two strikers” so far, raising the question of whether the Sweden international needs to reset with cameos from the bench rather than starting burdened by expectation.The 68-year-old went further, saying: “How does he feel?… All you do is train and if you’re only training, it’s not the same, you’re about 25 per cent less than players in front of you.”For him, the solution is not about dropping a player permanently but about protecting one of our most expensive signings until he looks ready.We have seen this theme before, with Chris Bascombe writing after the Nottingham Forest defeat that “Alexander Isak has been so bad for Liverpool they are missing Darwin Nunez,” a stark reminder of how alarming that performance was.His assessment that there were “no shots on target, no duels or tackles won, and no big chances” captured the scale of the struggle.A separate stat highlighted by Michael Reid added deeper context to the situation.The data editor noted that “Alexander Isak is the first player to lose each of his first four top-flight league starts for Liverpool since Percy Saul in October 1906,” which underlined how historically unusual this bedding-in period has become for our No.9.The former Newcastle forward has not found rhythm in a side still adjusting to new patterns in the final third, and the heavy defeat to Forest only amplified the conversation.Ekitike emerges as sensible short-term solutionHugo Ekitike battles with Nicolo Savona(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)Lawrenson also made clear that our French forward has done more than enough to justify leading the line in the coming weeks.He argued that “Ekitike should be back in the team,” emphasising that he has outperformed the club-record signing in terms of movement, intensity and output so far this season.That aligns with the internal discussions supporters have seen growing since the Forest loss, where the champions fell to their sixth defeat in the opening 12 league games, placing us 11th in the table.Those damaging numbers reminded us how fragile our attack has looked in big moments.The former defender also stressed that our boss must focus first on defensive organisation, remarking: “We start at 0-0 and make sure the nil is against us… at the moment, we just concede for fun.”That message will resonate after back-to-back losses by three goals, another reminder that stability is needed across the pitch, not just up front.For now, Lawrenson’s view will fuel the wider conversation.A short spell out of the firing line for Isak, paired with continued trust in Ekitike, might be exactly what our manager requires as we try to claw our way back into the top half of the table.
Ex-Red urges Slot to make huge decision on big-money signing
