Sometimes it takes stepping away from the noise to remember who you actually are. For Alexander Isak, that moment came 5,000 miles from Anfield in Mexico's Estadio Monterrey, where he finally looked like the player Liverpool thought they were signing for £125m.

Isak's performance in Sweden's thumping 5-1 victory over Tunisia was more than just a World Cup debut. It was a reminder that beneath the injury setbacks and the weight of being British football's most expensive signing, there remains a striker capable of terrorising defences.

The goal was pure Isak. Peeling off to the left after a ball into the channel, he drove at his marker before cutting inside and finding the far corner with the sort of pace and power that was completely absent during his troubled first season at Liverpool. It was the kind of strike that made Newcastle £125m richer and Liverpool considerably poorer.

But the goal was just the beginning. Isak then turned provider, muscling a Tunisian defender off the ball high up the pitch to supply team-mate Viktor Gyokores, before his crucial touch in the box ensured goalscorer Mattias Svanberg was back onside to score with his first touch.

For Andoni Iraola watching from wherever he spent his summer evening, this was exactly what he needed to see. Not just the goals and assists, but a player moving freely, confidently, without the hesitation that plagued his Anfield appearances.

The fact that Isak nearly completed the full match before being substituted in stoppage time might seem unremarkable, but it represents genuine progress. You have to go back 13 months to find the last time he played past the 90-minute mark. May 2025, Newcastle's 1-0 defeat to Everton on the final day of the 2024/25 season, seems like a lifetime ago now.

That drought tells you everything about how Isak's first year as a Liverpool player unfolded. He arrived unfit and late after an acrimonious departure from Newcastle, carrying the impossible burden of being England's most expensive footballer. A leg break in December derailed what little progress he'd made, keeping him out for four months. When he finally returned in April, it was to a team in disarray.

"It's Liverpool's own fault how much they paid for Alexander Isak so I don't care too much about that," Sweden legend Tomas Brolin tells Hajper. "But Isak can't shoot Liverpool to trophies himself. You have to play as a team."

Brolin knows about international stardom with Sweden, having finished fourth in the Ballon d'Or largely on the back of his 1994 World Cup performances. His assessment is brutally accurate but ultimately hopeful.

"The whole team has to work. But it will be easier for Isak to score these goals and do prominent things for Liverpool if he stays injury-free. He will have a good season next year as long as there are no injuries along the way here now."

That's the crux of it, isn't it? Fitness. For all the tactical analysis and psychological evaluations, Isak's Liverpool career will ultimately be determined by his ability to stay on the pitch. The player who scored 44 goals across his last two full seasons with Newcastle is still in there somewhere.

Brolin is equally pragmatic about Iraola's impact: "I actually don't know [what impact Andoni Iraola can make on Isak]. But if you are a good enough football player then, like Isak is, then you adapt to whatever playing system you have."

The former striker's message is clear: class is permanent, form is temporary. "Now Isak has had a slightly tough year due to injuries. Injuries are never fun for a football player but as long as he gets to stay injury-free, he has already shown before what a fantastic football player he is and what a goalscorer he has been for many years now."

With Mohamed Salah's departure ending an era where Liverpool's Egyptian king carried the goalscoring burden for eight of nine seasons, the pressure on Isak to deliver has never been greater. Liverpool need a new hero, and nobody has more demands on them to fill that role.

The club's entire transfer strategy seems built around maximising Isak's potential. Their pursuit of a Salah successor centres on finding players who can supply their record signing more frequently than last season's meagre offerings.

While Liverpool will be holding their breath hoping their international contingent returns injury-free from the World Cup, they also need Isak to maintain this rhythm. Unlike other players who need rest, their £125m striker needs meaningful minutes to rediscover the form that justified such an astronomical fee.

A World Cup player of the match award won't be the biggest trophy on Isak's wishlist, but it represents something more valuable right now: hope. Hope that the real Alexander Isak is finally ready to emerge at Liverpool.