As Alexander Isak proves, Liverpool can sign strikers who have troubled them. Monday marked the first anniversary of Newcastle’s Carabao Cup final win over Arne Slot’s side, with the ultimately decisive goal delivered by Isak. In the subsequent 12 months, Isak has scored more goals for Newcastle than Liverpool – four compared to three – despite spending the majority of the time on the books at Anfield and costing the defending champions £125m.
It remains the case that the injured Isak has only scored one Champions League goal; for Newcastle against Paris Saint-Germain. It is far from Liverpool’s only priority on Wednesday night at Anfield, but they will aim to extend their European run this season for long enough for Isak to feature in it again.
To do that, they may have to finally subdue an increasingly familiar nemesis. Part of Liverpool’s logic for recruiting Isak last summer was that he was the best striker available. An alternative interpretation was that another who commanded a record-breaking fee was also available: Victor Osimhen cost Galatasaray €75m (£65m) , the biggest fee ever paid by a Turkish club.
Galatasaray go to Anfield with two victories over Liverpool to their name already this season: one with a goal scored by Osimhen, in September, the other with one assisted by him, last week. The Nigerian has faced Liverpool four times and scored once; but that number scarcely shows his whole impact. It may be more accurate to say Osimhen has ended on the winning side in 75 percent of those games, a relative rarity against Liverpool.
And perhaps his finest display only lasted 40 minutes and ended without him on the scoresheet. Osimhen felt the destroyer in chief in one of the greatest eviscerations of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool; but for his first-half injury, Napoli would probably have beaten them by more than the 4-1 margin in 2022. Osimhen hit the post, set up Khvicha Kvaratskhelia when he had a shot cleared off the line, won a penalty but saw it saved by Alisson. He was outstanding.
Four years on, and Osimhen plies his trade in Turkey. He is only 27, only nine months Isak’s senior, and in a league which has tended to attract big names only when they are on the wrong side of 30. This may be an unfair characterisation and there may be a shift in the power balance in Europe, when Galatasaray could pay a fee last summer that was twice what any Serie A club paid for anyone.
But Premier League clubs could have funded it: indeed, five strikers cost English clubs more in the transfer window. Two were bought by Liverpool: Hugo Ekitike and Isak. If Osimhen is not playing in one of Europe’s five major domestic leagues, he has been advertising his quality in the Champions League. Before this week’s games, he was outscored only by Kylian Mbappe, Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane. If three of his seven were penalties, he also has three assists.
He set up two goals in the 5-2 win over Juventus in the play-off; in the second leg, after 10-man Juve’s stirring comeback, he scored arguably Galatasaray’s most important goal in Europe in over a decade. And then did not celebrate it, which struck some as an indication his heart is not in Istanbul, but which Osimhen claimed was out of his respect for his former Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti. It fuelled talk about his future.
His route to Istanbul was forged by the difficulty others had in signing him. His high wages felt like a deterrent to Chelsea in 2024. Manchester United had considered him in 2023, but the fearsome reputation as a negotiator of Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis was a deterrent. De Laurentiis, in turn, may have miscalculated, apparently pricing Osimhen at €150m in 2023, ending up loaning him out before accepting a fee half the size in 2025. The Nigerian’s fitness record may have put off some suitors; yet Liverpool bought Isak, with his own mixed record, who has been injured for much of this season.
And as Osimhen was bought by Galatasaray, Liverpool pursued other forward plans. There was an indirect influence from Galatasaray. When the Turkish champions took Leroy Sane from Bayern Munich, it prompted their German counterparts to buy Luis Diaz. His energy and intensity has been missed; more perhaps than Liverpool anticipated.
A year ago, as Slot’s side exited the Champions League to PSG, the Colombian was their best attacker at Anfield. They may have imagined that Isak would be the transformative presence to take them further; instead, they encounter a catalyst twice against them already this season.
Osimhen may never make it to the Premier League, but this could be his stage. Three years ago, he took Napoli into the first Champions League quarter-final in their history, scoring three times over the round of 16 and once in the last eight. Now Galatasaray are aiming to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2013 and only the second since 2001. And if Liverpool know who their main threat is, history shows that does not mean they can stop him.