Isak and Wirtz weren't Liverpool's worst signings. They were Liverpool's worst-used players.

£241 million between them. Eight league goals. Fifth place.

Look at that and you'd think the club got mugged in the market. I don't think they did, and I reckon Iraola is about to show us why.

Here's my problem with last season. The build-up was too slow. And there's no good having a centre-forward playing on the last line when the ball's going sideways in front of him.

That's it, really. That's the whole thing.

Isak's game is running into space. By the time that ball finally came forward, there was no space left to run into. Defence set, pitch shrunk, and the most expensive striker in the club's history stood there with his back to goal, wrestling a centre-half and waiting on a pass that was never coming.

Think about the Sunderland game. Anfield, 3 December. One home defeat behind us already, one more from the first back-to-back Anfield losses since 2012. And 80 minutes of absolutely nothing.

Then Curtis Jones carries it, finds Wirtz, and Wirtz beats two men in a packed box before getting his shot away. It eventually went down as an own goal off Nordi Mukiele — and fair enough, replays showed Wirtz's effort was going wide.

But forget the finish.

The only real bit of danger we created all night came from one lad beating men on his own, because nothing about how we were set up was creating chances consistently.

Isak got a four out of ten that night. That's not a mark for a striker playing badly. That's a mark for a striker who was barely involved.

Then Sweden played Tunisia this summer at the World Cup, and he looked like a completely different footballer.

Quicker. Confident. Running at people.

A goal and two assists, and look at the goal — he picks it up wide left, runs straight at a defender and finishes it himself. When did anyone ask him to do that at Anfield?

Then he presses, wins the ball high up the pitch and squares it for Gyökeres.

Now you'll say that's Tunisia, and Sweden got beat 5-1 by the Dutch a few days later.

Go on then, that's fair.

But I'm not bothered about the scoreline. I'm bothered about what he was being asked to do.

Give him the ball early, facing forward, before the defence has settled.

He's still that player.

He just wasn't allowed to be one.

Which brings me to Iraola.

He lost three of his back four in one summer at Bournemouth — Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid, Illia Zabarnyi to PSG and Milos Kerkez to us — and still took them to sixth and into Europe for the first time in their history.

Three seasons there and he finished 12th, then ninth, then sixth.

Better every year.

That's not a fluke.

And his football does the exact thing ours didn't.

Ball forward quickly. Make chances. Go at people.

Wirtz plays as a number 10, where I think he should've been all along.

What Isak needs is a winger who'll beat a man and play the ball earlier than we were doing. If Barcola comes in, that's him.

Get that right and Isak isn't loitering on a defender's shoulder any more. He's running at a back four that's already in bits.

Now the bit I can't answer, so I'll not pretend I can.

Iraola's football is relentless. He wants his forwards pressing for 90 minutes.

Isak suffered a serious leg injury in December. Ekitike — who scored 17 goals while helping to cover for him — then suffered an Achilles injury in April and won't be back this side of 2027. There's a fair argument that we asked far too much of him while Isak was missing.

Salah's gone.

So if Isak goes down again, we're light.

There's still time left in the transfer window and I'd like another forward through the door. Worst case, you put a winger through the middle and ask him to do a job — but it isn't the same and everyone knows it.

Can Isak do that pressing job all season?

I don't think anyone knows until we see it. I'm not going to sit here and tell you otherwise.

That's the risk to this prediction. If Isak can't stay fit, everything changes.

But if he can, I think Iraola is about to show us just how badly Liverpool used him last season.

And think back to this time last year.

All anyone was talking about was Wirtz. Then Isak turns up on deadline day and we all thought that was it — that front line was going to dominate everything in front of it.

The ability that made everyone so excited hasn't disappeared.

They're a year older, they've had a season at Liverpool, and now they're getting a manager whose football should suit them far better.

They didn't live up to the hype last season, and I put a lot of that on Slot.

Now look at what we're chasing.

Arsenal have won the league and strengthened again this summer. Fair enough.

But when I look at Liverpool's two biggest signings from last year, I still don't see two expensive mistakes.

I see two top-class footballers who weren't used properly.

And under Iraola, I think that's about to change.

So here it is:

We finish above Arsenal this season.

I know exactly how daft that looks written down in August.

Ask me again in May.