18 Sep, 2025
When is the best time to bring Alexander Isak into your FPL Team? Following a start in the UCL, is it time to bring him into our FPL teams?
With 762,994 Transfers in for Game Week 4, Alexander Isak is the topic on everyone’s lips right now. What happens when you take one of the most prolific strikers in the Premier League and add him to the most prolific team? In theory, fireworks. Now we understand the excitement we do, but given he is hardly up to speed on match fitness, it is important to make sure you time the move correctly, particularly if you have other strikers who are performing well or are an Ekitike/Gakpo owner. Our FPL Player Rankings is a great place to start to see which strikers you should not be transferring out.
If you have found yourself moving too quickly for players just for them not to start, then make sure you check into our Predicted Line-Ups hub every week to see if they will be starting. This will be extra valuable in the case of Isak in the coming weeks.
It’s fair to say most were surprised to see Isak named in the starting line up against Athletico Madrid on Wednesday evening. Not least considering his lack of match fitness. This was reflected in his performance, where despite showing he has the ability, he looked slightly short of sharpness and was substituted around the 60 minute mark.
It is worth noting that even this is impressive for a player who hasn’t even registered minutes off the bench yet, and we can therefore consider him a part of the rotation in the immediate future. He showed decent link up play with the rest of the Liverpool attack and seemed to be occupying the correct areas, but it will likely take him a bit longer to rediscover his world beating form we saw at Newcastle. His solid link up play was however punctuated by his xA of 0.53.
“In the 60 minutes he played he seemed to be quite fit to me,”
“It wasn’t as if after 10 minutes he was already very tired. He could play at this level quite well after one or two weeks of team sessions.”
Both statements seem to indicate that Isak will be a regular feature moving forward, and with Liverpool’s packed fixture period rapidly approaching it is likely we see a lot of him in the weeks to come. Our Game Week Tips page will be able to provide updates to help you stay up to date.
Slot did however make it very clear he would still be rotating Isak alongside Ekitike and pointed towards their packed fixture schedule to highlight this.
“So that was the thing and he can play football and that he’s a joy to watch and that is not a surprise to me. He was fitter than I expected but the fans can’t get their hopes too high. We play three times a week and that’s a bit too much for him still.”
“We have two great number nines and we’re going to use both of them throughout their career here.”
Isak’s entry to the first team has come way ahead of schedule. Meaning if you are one of the 762,994 managers who transferred him in ahead of Game Week 4 then you might just have got away with jumping in quite early, and we therefore wouldn’t recommend selling him.
The downside is however that he seems like he will subject to heavy rotation, at least in the immediate future. There may even be whole games he is rested, so we would recommend having good bench cover if you are planning on getting him in your team as soon as possible.
These next few weeks will prove pivotal in terms of the correct strategy. It is safe to say that bringing him in ahead of Game Week 4 was definitely jumping the gun a bit, but with a UCL start now under his belt, timing is now key.
We would personally exercise caution about bringing him in this week though. Liverpool are once again the early kick off and given Slot’s press conference comments it is hard to see a world where Isak also starts on Saturday. Even in the unlikely chance he does, his minutes will no doubt be heavily managed and it is hard to see him getting more than a half of football in. At minimum we would recommend avoiding transferring him in this week.
Despite Liverpool’s stellar goalscoring record they have at times found it difficult to break some teams down, such as Burnley.
They face a Crystal Palace side in Game Week 6 who have kept 3/4 clean sheets in the league, only conceded 1 goal and have the 6th lowest xGA this season. Making this not the most attractive fixture for any striker right now, particularly one whose minutes will probably still be managed.
They then face a Chelsea defence who have kept 2/4 clean sheets this year and sit 4th lowest in the league for xGA, again not the most attractive fixture for a striker still returning to match fitness.
If you would like to bring in Isak, we therefore recommend waiting until at least Game Week 8. Where they play a struggling Man United team. They then follow it up with fixtures against a Brentford side who have already conceded 7 goals this season and a Villa side who have the 4th highest xGA this season.
Not only are the fixtures great after Game Week 8, but this should also allow plenty of time for Isak to regain match fitness. We will also have a much clearer idea on how and when Slot plans to rotate him and Ekitike.
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With years working in the FPL space and digital media. George now brings his knowledge and tips to the ingenuity audience through a fun and personable writing style.
