The Tottenham Hotspur defender has spoken about the qualities of Liverpool striker Alexander Isak.
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Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven has named Alexander Isak as the toughest opponent of his Premier League career.
The striker joined Liverpool from Newcastle United for a British record fee of £125 million in the summer transfer window. The Reds opted to splash out an unprecedented fee after Isak plundered 27 goals for the Magpies last season.
The Sweden international netted the winning goal in Newcastle’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final - ending the Toon’s 70-year wait for a major trophy.
Isak has endured a slow start to his Anfield career, though. He arrived well short of fitness after training away from Newcastle throughout pre-season and he’s scored only one Premier League goal so far.
Having joined Spurs from Wolfsburg in 2024, Van de Ven has faced the best the Premier League has to offer. And the centre-back admitted that Isak is the player who has caused him more problems than the likes of Liverpool’s Mo Salah and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.
Appearing on The Overlap, Van de Van said: “The game we played against Newcastle where we lost (4-0) and I slipped, Isak was a different level. So at this point I was like he’s a top-class player. I knew he was top class but this game he was excellent. He can run in behind, he can come to the ball and he’s technical - really good with the ball. He’s fast, he has a top finish, so at that point he was just everywhere.”
Van de Ven will come up against Isak when Liverpool travel to Tottenham on Saturday. Spurs go into the game after a 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest while the Reds earned a 2-0 win over Brighton.
Isak came on as a late substitute, having suffered a knock during the 1-0 victory at Inter Milan in the Champions League. The 26-year-old is still searching for full sharpness and after Hugo Ekitike bagged a double against Brighton, Isak could again be on the bench.
Speaking on Isak’s difficult opening few months at Liverpool, head coach Arne Slot said: “He is not the only No 9 who suffers in some games from not getting many chances,” said Slot, who has Conor Bradley back from injury for Saturday’s trip to Leeds. “At this level it’s not like the No 9 is involved in eight, nine, 10 chances every single half. But it is obvious and clear that we want to bring him into more threatening situations.
“Before we went to only one goal conceded in two games [West Ham and Sunderland] we had a lot of chances. Because we are a little bit more compact and not taking as many risks, we have not been able to create as many chances as all of the games before. It is definitely one of the things on my list of things to improve to get our No 9 more involved in the game and more involved in the final third.
In this league strikers don’t touch the ball that much but a few times they do touch it, it’s quite nice if they finish it off. I have no clue what the stats of Haaland are but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t touch it 100 times a game, but he does score a lot. It is more important that they touch the ball in the right times than to touch it so many times. Haaland touches it much more where it matters and that’s where we need to improve. It is clear and obvious.”