Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock believes Alexander Isak will not hit top form until next season after benefiting from a full summer schedule.
The Sweden international has scored just one Premier League goal since joining Liverpool from Newcastle United for a British-record £125m fee in September.
Isak missed pre-season following an acrimonious exit from Newcastle, where he was frozen out by Eddie Howe, and a groin injury picked up in October has further disrupted his campaign.
“From Isak’s point of view, I have my own podcast with my fitness coach, and one of the things we discussed was that he’s not fit and he won’t get fit until next season because when you come into a football club and haven’t done a full pre-season with players, it’s very difficult to get up to speed,” Warnock told aceodds.
“When you are talking about doing runs on your own, you’re not getting pushed by anyone. What I mean by that is if there’s a 1k run to do and the fitness coach says you’ve got four minutes to complete that run, you’ll amble around and get it done in around that time.
“You might push yourself a little bit. If I start running with him or a player starts running with him, it becomes competitive and that’s how you get your fitness over time. It makes you push yourself and you get fitter. You need that competitive edge when you’re in a pre-season.
“When he came to the football club, they said they’ll put him on a mini pre-season. I watched him against Southampton in the Carabao Cup and he played the first 45 minutes and then at half-time, he started doing runs. But he ran on his own again. So the runs aren’t competitive. There was nothing competitive at Liverpool to push him.
“I just don’t think we’re going to see anything from Isak this year. I watched him numerous times where he doesn’t look fit enough. He doesn’t look sharp and confident in his body to accelerate away from people.
“He’s probably thinking to himself: ‘I used to be able to do this’ and people in the stands are thinking that’s not the Isak I saw at Newcastle. Well it’s not because he’s not fit enough and he’s not ready to play in the Premier League at the highest level.
“We spoke on the podcast and we said he won’t be ready till next season and maybe that’s where we see Hugo Ekitike accelerate past Isak and Isak will have to bide his time a little bit more.”
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