Liverpool have linked with a Sweden forward who was fantastic in the season before l

successfully used this principle with his football team, especially in recent years.

The highest price paid for a player was for Philippe Coutinho, a sum that may never (or, at most, very rarely) be matched again. Barcelona clearly did not receive value for the significant sum they invested, at the very least.

The Reds have also had success even with much less well-known players. Michael Edwards was able to close the agreements despite the fact that many children were sold for amounts that did not seem to be very reasonable.

There have been many purchases that have offered much more than what would have been implied by their transfer fees as well. When Jürgen Klopp departs from Liverpool, stories about his finest and worst acquisitions will be published, with the majority of the worst being cheap gambles or loanees. Nearly all of the greatest players will have shown to be great values.

One method the Reds did well in trade was by acquiring players from clubs that had just been demoted. All three of those players—Andy Robertson, Gini Wijnaldum, and Xherdan Shaqiri—belong to that category, and their accomplishments—especially the first two—are much too many to list here. In contrast to signing players for the squad after a poor season, this is something the club hasn’t really done. According to Spanish news reports, this could soon alter.

According to Fichajes, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Newcastle, and Liverpool are all interested in acquiring Alexander Isak from Real Sociedad. This is not news on its own. This rumor has been around previously; the Reds allegedly launched a £59 million transfer bid earlier this year, and links were established at least a year earlier.

However, the timing of this most recent story and the fact that Liverpool dominates the transfer market do make it slightly more intriguing. The club’s management is far too astute to run their operations solely on Transfermarkt prices, but it’s important to note that Isak’s market value has dropped over the past six months.

This is strange. If you go back and look at the graph for everybody Liverpool has signed, you’ll notice that there is typically a sharp ascent bringing them to the Reds. Isak appears to have peaked and to be already descending.

It is not necessary to do a careful statistical study to determine the cause. With 17 goals, the Swedish international had the sixth-best season in La Liga in 2020–21. He rose to fifth after subtracting penalties, which was an impressive performance for a player who had only turned 21 a few weeks into the season.

Isak managed to reach double digits in goals in total last season despite scoring just six league goals (two of which came from the penalty spot). Even with the strike in the Copa del Rey, he has only scored twice in open play and three times overall in 2022.

That certainly provides a contrast to Darwin Nez’s 34 goals, doesn’t it? But after looking at Isak’s top-line figures, let’s continue our investigation.

Football seasons might seem incredibly long, especially if your club plays 63 games. One league season, though, isn’t much to form a judgement on in terms of statistical samples. There are only 11 players who have surpassed the 100-shot threshold among the top five leagues in Europe for the 2021–2022 season. One season’s worth of data can contain a lot of randomness.

For Isak, this is when things get interesting. When measured against his underlying predicted goal totals, he has outperformed and underperformed in various seasons, but over the course of his three seasons with Real Sociedad, he has scored 32 league goals compared to the 32.7 expected.