Wayne Rooney and Troy Deeney agree on Liverpool star who simply deserves to be starting more games

Wayne Rooney has insisted that Alexander Isak doesn’t deserve to be starting for Liverpool.

The striker still awaits his maiden Premier League goal since joining the Reds on summer transfer deadline day for a British record fee of £125 million. Isak spent the majority of the summer training alone at Newcastle United as he pursued a move to Anfield.

The Sweden international arrived at Liverpool short of fitness so he was gradually built up by head coach Arne Slot and his backroom staff. Ahead of Sunday’s clash against Manchester United, Slot insisted Isak could not be fairly judged as he had regained full sharpness.

But the former Real Sociedad man endured a difficult evening as Liverpool sank to a 2-1 loss against United, which was their fourth successive defeat in all competitions. Isak spurned two good chances in the first half.

He started ahead of Hugo Ekitike, who has scored five times since his £79 million arrival from Eintracht Frankfurt. Ekitike made a difference when he came off the bench against United and was involved in Cody Gakpo’s equaliser.

What’s been said

And former United striker Rooney reckons that Ekitike should be picked ahead of Isak going forward. "I wouldn't play Isak, he hasn't looked ready since coming from Newcastle," the ex-England captain said on The Wayne Rooney Show.

"He hasn't trained, hasn't had a pre-season. It's so important. While Newcastle were training he was probably sat at home on the phone to his agent for six hours a day trying to get a move.

"It's so difficult when you don't have a pre-season. He might've done stuff by himself but he's paying the price of it. On performances, he doesn't deserve to be playing ahead of Ekitike."

Former Watford captain Troy Deeney also agreed with Rooney that Ekitike should be starting for Liverpool. However, Deeney suggested that the France international could also be deployed on left-hand side of the attack ahead of Cody Gako.

Deeney said on Match of the Day 2: “Ekitike has to be involved. He is scoring and for some reason, he has had to come out to make other people fit in. If he is scoring, leave him in, left Isak earn it. But I’d like to see him on the left-hand side where Gakpo is. I think he does exactly the same, coming in and getting a shot off. How many times did we see he came in on the right foot, you know what’s happening but just can’t stop it.

“I think he needs to have a little bit more of a game from the start. That front three need to relax a bit and think about the team first rather than goals. I think they are all goal first opposed to team first.If they lost 5-1 and one of them scores, they’re quite happy and that’s not how a team works.”