Alexander Isak reacts to Liverpool 2-2 Nottingham Forest: "We started pretty bad"

This is certainly not the start to life as Liverpool manager that Andoni Iraola would have been hoping for, albeit it not disastrous either. The Reds have commenced their campaign with back-to-back 2-2 draws, pinching a point at Newcastle a week ago, before only managing a share of the spoils when Nottingham Forest visited Anfield on Saturday lunchtime.

In Iraola's Anfield opener, the Reds fell behind twice, with Alexander Isak bagging the first equaliser, before Víctor Muñoz marked his home debut by lashing home late on. The Swede's goal rounded off an excellent team move, in which Florian Wirtz's passed the ball to Cody Gakpo, who spun Neco Williams quite balletically, before and inch-perfect low cross that Isak simply could not miss. The fact it had an xG figure of 0.99 means you or I could have scored!

Astonishingly, considering he arrived from Newcastle for £130 million a year ago, this was only Isak's fifth goal in Liverpool red, and just a third at Anfield, previously netting against Southampton in the EFL Cup and Crystal Palace.

Despite finding the target, the 26 year old was clearly frustrated by the result when speaking to UK broadcaster TNT Sports mere moments after the full time whistle sounded.

"I think there's no problem in the fighting spirit. Never giving up. I think we showed that last weekend as well. Obviously we started the game pretty bad today.When we gained momentum by scoring a goal, that's when we need to be better I think because again today we conceded quite quickly after that. "

Alexander Isak

Isak is right about Liverpool conceding straight after scoring themselves being an issue. Against his former side Newcastle last Sunday, Joe Willock fired the Magpies back in front less than 100 seconds after Cody Gakpo had lashed home to make it 1-1 in front of the Leazes Stand. Similarly, within ten minutes of Isak's goal, Alisson's foul on Neco Williams gave Forest a penalty, one that Morgan Gibbs-White expertly converted.

Obviously two points from two games, against teams who finished 12th and 16th last season, is far from ideal for Liverpool, so how do they improve? Well, one way will surely be to get the best out of Isak. During the first half against Forest, the Swede touched the ball a miserly six times, the fewest of any player on the pitch, scoring with his ninth touch of the afternoon on the hour mark.

As an aside, that goal, according to Michael Reid of Opta, makes Isak the fourth man to score a goal for Liverpool and have the same initials as the manager. The others are Joe McQue and John McCartney while being managed by John McKenna in the 1890s, as well as Ryan Babel when Rafa Benítez was in charge, slightly more recently, in 2007.

Perhaps more importantly, Isak ended the game with only 13 touches, the fewest of any starter, one less than Liam Delap, who was introduced to lead Forest's attack in the 66th minute. During his final two Premier League seasons at Newcastle, the striker averaged 32 and then 36.28 touches per 90. This number plummeted to 23.1 last season and this time round, while acknowledging it is only a tiny, two-game sample size, is down at 20.5.

Last weekend, as he returned to Tyneside for the first time, the centre-forward failed to convert any of his four shots, squandering two Opta-defined big chances. Similarly on Saturday, the Swede had three shots, missing the target with one while seeing a header from a corner blocked.

Nevertheless, everyone knows that, at his peak, Isak is one of the very best forwards on the planet. Thus, one of Iraola's priorities, ahead of Friday night's visit to Portman Road, has to be to figure out how to enhance Isak's full potential.

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