Alexander Isak's underwhelming comeback savaged by Swedish press

Over 100 days since he last kicked a ball in a competitive fixture, Alexander Isak returned to the pitch this week with his country Sweden and the result was, well, less than impressive.

As Sweden travelled to Kosovo, Isak was given a starting spot on the bench and when his country went 2-0 down before the half time whistle, they eventually called on the new Liverpool striker.

He was given an 18-minute runout but looked exactly like a man who had not been training for a number of months.

His most notable contribution was a scrap with Kosovo defender Fidan Aliti that put both players in the referee’s book and from an offensive point, he managed four shots for a combined xG of 0.38.

Ultimately, the £125m striker was unable to overturn his country’s deficit and Sweden are now in dangerous territory having recorded just one point from their first two World Cup qualifiers.

As the dust settled, the Swedish press let Isak know just what they thought of him.

Fotbollskanalen said it was “incomprehensible” that Isak did not manage to at least score one goal during his 18-minute cameo.

“Double substitutions right at half-time didn’t help. Instead, it was Kosovo who came close to extending the lead to 3-0 several times,” they wrote.

“Sure, Alexander Isak created two huge chances when he came on, but it seems incomprehensible that the Swedish loss stayed at 2-0. There could and should have been more goals for the home team, who were better than Sweden.”

The outlet also said the whole team performance was a “painful drag” and that “players from the Premier League, Serie A and Bundesliga barely managed to play any organised game against a national team ranked in 95th place.”

Writing for one of the country’s biggest newspapers, Sportbladet, pundit Simon Bank said Isak was expected to “come on and lift the coffin lid” but instead left the fans with “their trousers down.”

“Isak had been on the pitch for 10 seconds before he was knocked down in an aerial duel and left lying on the ground. It wasn’t that kind of evening.

“600 Swedish supporters had travelled to Pristina to see this, and now they were left standing there with their trousers down. Is this your football team? Your idea of football?”

Sweden’s other biggest newspaper, Expressen, focused their anger on the whole team rather than just Isak as pundit Therese Stormberg said it was a “betrayal.”

READ: ‘Doesn’t feel right’ – Carragher & four other pundits unconvinced by Isak’s £130m transfer to Liverpool

“This effort was a betrayal. From everyone. Against each other, against themselves, against everything everyone believed this national team would be able to achieve.”

Unsurprisingly, Sweden’s neighbours took great joy in their rival’s misfortune. Danish outlet Ekstra Bladet criticised manager Jon Dahl Tomasson and said they were “humiliated” by Kosovo.

Norwegian station TV2 merely said “Sweden in despair.”

Plenty of the criticism of Tomasson was aimed at his decision to leave it so late before introducing Isak but the former Newcastle and Milan striker said that was all the player could manage. He said: “That was the maximum number of minutes I could give him.”

Isak, meanwhile, suggested there was no instruction from his new club Liverpool to keep his playing time to a minimum.

“Not that I know of. I’m with the national team now. It’s clear that clubs and national teams have contact and communication, but that’s between them,” Isak said.

“It’s hard to know exactly how many minutes is right. It ended up being 20 minutes and it felt okay.”

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