Gary Lineker disagrees with Wayne Rooney on Alexander Isak after latest Liverpool blank

Alexander Isak has had a slow start to life at Liverpool

Gary Lineker has urged Liverpool to give Alexander Isak more time to show what he can do after a slow start to life at Anfield.

The striker is yet to score in the Premier League for the club since his record £125 million move from Newcastle United.

His latest blank came in the 2-1 home defeat against Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.

Isak was selected ahead of Hugo Ekitike in the striker position and played 72 minutes, but failed to find the net in what was the Reds’ fourth loss in a row.

Given his price tag and the work put into completing the transfer in the summer, there is a lot of expectation on Isak at Liverpool.

But he is so far failing to live up to that.

It has led for calls for him to be dropped back to the bench by former England striker Wayne Rooney.

Rooney

"I wouldn't play Isak, he hasn't looked ready since coming from Newcastle,” he said on The Wayne Rooney Show.

"He hasn't trained, hasn't had a pre-season. It's so important. While Newcastle were training he was probably sat at home on the phone to his agent for six hours a day trying to get a move.

"It's so difficult when you don't have a pre-season. He might've done stuff by himself but he's paying the price of it.

"On performances, he doesn't deserve to be playing ahead of Ekitike."

However, Lineker disagrees with Rooney and believes that Liverpool should show more patience with Isak, given his disrupted pre-season.

Lineker

“I would say that because of the length of time all of that debacle took place, he wouldn’t be as fit and as fresh so he’s playing catch-up,”

“When you miss pre-season, it’s almost like an injured player coming back. So I would actually give him a little bit more time because he’s only played a handful of games.

“It’s almost like he’s going through pre-season during a real season. So I would give him a little bit of time on that front, and I think he’ll come good because he’s such a classy player.”

Fellow pundit Micah Richards was more critical of the striker, comparing his performances now to those that we saw when he was at Newcastle.

“Isak is the shadow of the player this whole debacle of what happened in the summer, it’s showing. He’s not fit,”

"Arne Slot said in the press conference before that now we’re going to see the real Isak because he looks like he’s going to be fit now.

“But the chance that he had in the game, if he’s at Newcastle, he tucks that away.”

Liverpool will look to bounce back and avoid a fifth defeat in a row when they return to Champions League action on Wednesday night.

“The Reds travel to Germany to take on Eintracht Frankfurt in the 8pm kick-off.

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