Liverpool have concluded their pursuit of Alexander Isak, the Premier League\u2019s second leading scorer last season. The arrival arrives amid a positive start at Anfield for Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 and a 1\u20130 win over Arsenal that has given the champions an early edge in the title race.<\/p>\n
Beyond tactical fit and goalscoring potential, attention has swiftly turned to shirt numbers. Isak has shown a clear pattern across his senior career. He began with Nos. 30 and 36 at AIK, adopted No. 14 at AIK, Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle United, wore No. 9 while on loan at Willem II in 2018\u201319 and carried No. 19 during three seasons at Real Sociedad.<\/p>\n
For his national side the striker has primarily worn the No. 9 shirt, though he has also contributed while wearing Nos. 8, 10, 11, 14 and 15. That range underlines both his adaptability and the symbolism attached to certain numbers, especially No. 9 and No. 14.<\/p>\n
Federico Chiesa currently wears the No. 14 shirt and the Italian has \u201cmanifested his value off the bench at the start of his second season.\u201d The Swede\u2019s arrival, though, will limit his influence moving forward. Darwin N\u00fa\u00f1ez vacated the No. 9 earlier this summer when he moved to the Saudi Pro League, and Ekitik\u00e9 has taken No. 22. Those changes have left a clear pathway for Isak to assume one of Liverpool\u2019s prominent shirt numbers.<\/p>\n
Speculation has centred on whether Isak will follow his recent pattern and prefer No. 14 or accept the No. 9 shirt that recently became available. With precedent on his side for both numbers and the club\u2019s squad changes this summer, the shirt decision is now one of the few outstanding details to settle as Isak prepares to join the champions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Isak joins Liverpool; shirt numbers focus on No.9 as Ekitik\u00e9 settles with No.22. No.14 history noted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[195,207,231],"class_list":["post-2348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-alexander-isak","tag-darwin-nunez","tag-hugo-ekitike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}