With Alexander Isak close to becoming the most expensive player in British football history, we look at the data that has made Liverpool willing to part with £125 million.
Liverpool won the Premier League last season, before breaking their all-time transfer record to sign Florian Wirtz over the summer, as well as adding Giorgi Mamardashvili, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitiké.
Arne Slot’s side went top of the table after Dominik Szoboszlai’s stunning free-kick against title rivals Arsenal on Sunday, also making them the only team to still have a 100% record after three games of the 2025-26 Premier League season.
Then, after many had gone to bed on Sunday night, it was also reported that Liverpool had agreed a British-record fee to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle United.
If you’re a Liverpool fan, you might be feeling like the customer from the infamous restaurant scene in Monty Python’s ‘The Meaning of Life’. Just when you think you’re full, something else comes along to further feed your appetite. Isak is no “wafer-thin mint”, but the hope from the Merseyside club is that he can help them to explode, in a positive way (if you haven’t seen it don’t go and watch that scene by the way, it’s disgusting).
Isak looks to be joining Liverpool on a six-year contract on deadline day to further bolster an already exciting squad in another huge statement of intent from the defending champions.
It has been the saga of the summer, an initially exciting move, though with constant updates of very little happening it almost led to overwhelming tedium. But now that it seems to be happening, the reality of the situation can sink in.
Isak was outstanding in his three years at Newcastle, the club’s best striker since Alan Shearer, and they were excellent for him too. While he has certainly developed a lot on Tyneside, he was also a highly-respected prospect prior to his move there in 2022.
After catching plenty of attention across Europe at AIK, scoring 19 goals in 24 Allsvenskan games in 2016, Isak earned a move to Borussia Dortmund at just 18 years old. Things didn’t work out in Germany, but two-and-a-half years later he found a home in San Sebastián with Real Sociedad.
Isak was given game time and trust by Real boss Imanol Alguacil, and in his second season at the club he helped them lift their first Copa del Rey in 33 years.
In total, Isak scored 44 goals in 132 games for Real Sociedad in all competitions, only 94 of which were starts and only two of his goals were penalties.
Some questioned whether he was worth the big fee Newcastle ultimately paid for him in 2022 after he only scored six goals in 32 La Liga games in 2021-22, but he had fired 17 in 34 in the campaign prior to that, before impressing for Sweden at the delayed Euro 2020 tournament.
That is ultimately why Newcastle paid a then club-record fee of over £60m for Isak, but it was still a gamble; one that paid off handsomely as he produced 62 goals (49 non-pen goals) in 109 appearances (95 starts) in all competitions for the Magpies.
Despite the hostilities during the prolonged saga, the Swede has ultimately helped Newcastle to double their investment as well. And like at Sociedad, he also played a big part in helping the club to end a long trophy drought when he scored in their 2-0 win over, coincidentally, Liverpool in March in the EFL Cup final.
Newcastle will move on, having added Nick Woltemade, with Yoane Wissa seemingly to follow.
Isak is heading to Liverpool, though, so we have drilled down into the Sweden international’s data to see why the English champions have been willing to shell out more money than any British club ever has for a player before.
More Than Just Goals
When you sign a striker, you expect goals, and surely Liverpool will be getting plenty of those.
Isak has scored 52 goals for Newcastle in all competitions across the last two seasons, with 44 coming in the Premier League.
Only Erling Haaland (49) and Mohamed Salah (47) scored more Premier League goals across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons than Isak (44), with the Swede playing six games fewer than his new Liverpool teammate (64-70). If you just look at non-penalty goals, only Haaland (39) is above Isak (35), with Salah scoring 33.
Where Salah is miles ahead of the other two is assists in that time (28), with Haaland and Isak only managing eight apiece. However, an assist is just a created chance that was finished well, and in Isak’s defence, Newcastle were understandably set up to provide for him, so it was perhaps harder for him to rack up assists. He can certainly be a creative player, though.
In 2023-24, only three Newcastle players created more chances from open play than Isak (27) in the Premier League, though he only recorded two assists. There were also only three teammates ahead of him for open-play chances created last season, while only Jacob Murphy (12) managed more than his six assists.
In December 2024, Isak notably scored more Premier League goals than anyone else (8) but he also created the most chances from open play (19) of anyone in the competition.
Last season was comfortably his best creatively, totalling 50 open-play chances for Newcastle in all competitions, at least 19 more than his next best career season, which was 2023-24 (31). His 1.33 open-play chances created per 90 was also the best in a season for Isak to date.
That is something that has the potential develop even further at Liverpool. While Isak will be the central striker, the onus shouldn’t be as focused on him to be on the end of every move, with more options around him in the likes of Salah, Ekitiké, Cody Gakpo and Wirtz to finish off attacks.
Isak is a striker, it should be emphasised. He did play around 24% of his Premier League minutes in his first season at Newcastle on the left, but has since almost exclusively been a centre-forward.
He outlined that in an interview with Newcastle legend Shearer last season, telling the BBC: “I would say [I see myself] as a centre-forward, that’s my position. I feel comfortable receiving the ball on the left side but I haven’t really been as good in the games I’ve started as a left winger.”
Isak is also more involved in games than many other Premier League centre-forwards. He averaged 36.8 touches per 90 in the 2024-25 season. That’s more than the man he is essentially replacing at Anfield, Darwin Núñez (33.2), as well as Nicolas Jackson (30.9), Jean-Philippe Mateta (28.3), Ollie Watkins (27.0), Chris Wood (25.0), Evanilson (24.3) and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Haaland (22.9).
He also won possession in the final third an average of 0.6 times per 90, the same as Salah and Gakpo, and only slightly less often than Núñez and Diogo Jota (0.7). You could argue that was partly due to Newcastle not being as aggressive in their press as Liverpool, too. The Reds averaged 4.3 possession wins in the final third per game last season to Newcastle’s 3.6.
Of centre-forwards, only Evanilson (24), Jackson (20) and Mateta (20) won possession in the final third in the Premier League more often than Isak (18).
His improvements creatively and out of possession are another reason Liverpool will have shelled out so much money for him and handed him a six-year deal. Isak turns 26 later this month, but the Reds will believe they are getting him in his peak years, and with the opportunity to even further develop an already world-class striker.
But… He Is Largely Goals
Fundamentally, Liverpool are paying the money they are because Isak feels as close to a guarantee for productivity in the final third as you are going to get without being able to sign one of Haaland or Kylian Mbappé.
We’ve already mentioned Isak’s goal totals, but it’s not just the basic numbers. He has managed to rack up some very impressive landmarks in his time on Tyneside.
Isak became just the third Newcastle player to score 10+ goals both home and away in a single Premier League campaign last season, after Andrew Cole (1993-94) and Shearer (2001-02), while he also recorded his 50th Premier League goal in just his 76th appearance in the competition, with only six players scoring 50 goals in fewer appearances.
Isak overtook Freddie Ljungberg (48) as the leading Swedish scorer in Premier League history during the 2024-25 campaign, while he also became just the fourth different player to score in eight successive Premier League appearances, after Jamie Vardy (twice for Leicester), Ruud van Nistelrooy (twice for Manchester United), and Daniel Sturridge (for Liverpool).
Across 2024, Isak found the net a total of 25 times in the Premier League, the most for the Magpies in a calendar year since Shearer scored 27 in 2002.
It will also be important for Liverpool that he generally turns up in big games; Isak scored against Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester United last season.
It is hardly a shock to reveal that Isak was one of the more ruthless finishers in the Premier League in 2024-25. His non-penalty shot conversion rate was 26.4% from 95 shots; only four players (min. 50 shots) had higher, two of whom were potential Newcastle new-boy Wissa (27.5%) and reported alternative target Jørgen Strand Larsen (28.6%). Isak’s conversion rate was higher than both Haaland (21.6%) and Salah (21.1%).
Something Slot will also like about his new acquisition is his movement. The best strikers get themselves into positions to score often, and Isak’s off-the-ball running will certainly be of interest to the likes of Salah and Wirtz in particular.
When Newcastle were in possession last season, Isak made 113 runs to become a cross option for his teammates, with only nine players in the Premier League making more last season.
Possibly more notable, though, is that only 14 players made more runs in behind than Isak (287), with Salah (389) the only Liverpool player to record more. On top of that, 13 Premier League players saw more of their runs in behind lead to a team shot, which is something Liverpool get plenty of now from Salah. His runs in behind last season led to 77 shots at goal from him or teammates, at least 29 more than any other player in the Premier League.
That could be an area Slot wants to develop in Isak to add another dimension to his team, but also the player. As Liverpool see more of the ball than Newcastle and start more attacks, that should in theory give him more opportunities to make those runs.
There is also the fact that Salah will miss around a month of the season in December/January due to the Africa Cup of Nations, but on top of that, the Egyptian will also eventually end his time at Liverpool, and the club will need to know they still have plenty of goals in the team. In theory, Isak goes a long way to remedying that.
Salah signed a two-year extension towards the end of last season, but he can’t go on forever. It appears Liverpool are making sure that when he leaves, there is a potent attack in place that will allow a seamless transition into a post-Salah era.
With Isak (25 years old), Ekitiké (23), Wirtz (22), Gakpo (26) fresh off signing a new deal, and the hero of last week’s win at Newcastle Rio Ngumoha only turning 17 on Friday, Liverpool have a raft of attackers either just starting their careers or about the enter their peak years.
Liverpool have been very vocal about their aim this season being to try and win everything possible. That therefore means they must assume they will play over 60 games in all competitions, so having depth will be vital. All of their forwards will get plenty of time on the pitch.
If Isak can replicate the form he showed at Newcastle, his new club will be more than happy. If he can improve further still, then it really will be quite the spectacle. Who knows, a few years from now perhaps £125m might be seen as somewhat of a bargain…
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