RED Bull Leipzig striker Alexander Sorloth is one man who has been reportedly linked with Saints, as manager Ralph Hasenhuttl hopes to bolster his attacking options following Danny Ings’ departure.
With Blackburn Rovers seemingly holding firm on their lofty asking price for 24-year-old Adam Armstrong, it looks increasingly likely that Saints will look elsewhere for a cut-price option.
The Leipzig striker in question has had one spell in the Premier League before with Crystal Palace that wasn’t so successful, but in actuality the reasons why may run deeper than the surface stats.
We’ve put together everything you could need to know about Sorloth – you can make your own verdict…
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Who is Alexander Sorloth?
Alexander Sorloth is a 25-year-old Norwegian international striker who currently plays for Red Bull Leipzig in Germany’s Bundesliga.
The Trondheim-born forward is 6foot 4’ tall and started his career at Rosenborg, but has since played for Gronigen, Midtjylland, Crystal Palace, Gent, Trabzonspor and Leipzig. His birthday is December 5 1995.
His most prolific spell came in Turkey with Trabzonspor during the 2019-20 season, where he scored 24 goals and nine assists in 34 Super Lig matches, picking up the Golden Boot. Also won the Turkish Cup.
He is the son of former Rosenborg player and Norwegian international Goran Sorloth.
In June 2021 an Instagram post of his surpassed 3.5 million comments, making it the most commented post on Instagram by an athlete. It was mainly fans of Trabzonpor, asking the player to return to his former loan club.
The recent 2020-21 season
Plying his trade for Leipzig, Sorloth scored five goals and registered two assists in 29 Bundesliga games – however he only played a full 90’ on ten occasions, with the rest being mostly substitute appearances and some starts when he was then subbed himself.
He also scored one Champions League goal, a late winner after being introduced from the bench in a game that finished 4-3 vs Turkish side Basaksehir – who defeated Manchester United in the same group stage.
Leipzig ended up finishing second-placed in Germany’s premier division that season.
It could be argued that having spent a year with the Red Bull team, he might be somewhat familiar with the philosophy Saints and former Leipzig manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has attempted to employ.
That Crystal Palace spell
After joining Crystal Palace for an £8m fee in January 2018, Sorloth failed to register a single goal in 16 Premier League appearances for the club. He did, however, score the only goal in an EFL Cup tie vs Swansea in August 2018.
But there is more than meets the eye with this spell. Competing with Michy Batshuayi and Christian Benteke, he only started four games under Roy Hodgon and they came in his first four appearances, vs Everton, Spurs, Manchester United and Chelsea.
Palace lost all four and he didn’t feature again for the rest of the season. During the following 2018-19 campaign, with 12 miniscule substitute appearances totalling just 173 minutes.
Obviously, he didn’t impress enough in training to warrant a crack but it’s unfair to judge his Premier League potential on this particular time with Palace.
He was also employed, on rare occasion, in a winger role – given his 6foot 4’ stature perhaps not his best suited position. Then sold by Palace to Leipzig for a fee of £18m in September 2020, after having spent 2019-20 out on loan at Trabzonspor.
Prolific at international level
In 32 international appearances for Norway, Sorloth has scored 11 goals including two in 2022 World Cup qualifying back in March this year.
He also netted two at Windsor Park, Belfast, vs Northern Ireland, back in September 2020. Scored nine in his last fifteen at international level.
Injury history
According to Transfermarkt, Sorloth has a pretty clean bill when it comes to injury history. He’s only been registered as having a hand fracture back in 2015 and a viral infection and minor injury during his Crystal Palace spell, seeming to suggest he’s pretty fit and could feature whenever needed for Saints.
However, he was helped off the pitch when no stretcher was available following a minor injury during his time at Gent, although that wasn’t as bad as first thought.
What have they said?
After he scored his only goal for Palace, Roy Hodgson said: "He was good and his physical stats are phenomenal, he deserved his goal, he worked very hard.
"He has been making steady improvement in the time he has been with us, having started well, before getting an injury. He works very hard at his game.
"We are pleased we had that option and a centre forward of his type and a centre forward of (Christian) Benteke’s type, a target that can be quite important for you going through a full season."
His Midtjylland and eventual Gent manager Jess Thorup, at the time of initial Sorloth links to his Gent side, said: “'I saw that he played on Saturday. (Laughs) Bad news.
“He has power, pace and can hopefully score some goals. That's what we need.”
The full stats and fees simplified
We detail here his total (all competitions) appearances, goals, assists and transfer fees paid by each club during his career:
Rosenborg BK 10 1 0
FK Bodo Glimt 29 14 6 – (On loan)
Gronigen 43 6 4 – £500k
FC Midtjylland 26 15 9 – £400k
Crystal Palace 20 1 1 – £8m
Gent 22 5 3 – (On loan)
Trabzonspor 49 33 11 – (On loan)
RB Leipzig 37 6 3 – £18m
Verdict
It’s impossible to predict whether he would be a success in a Saints shirt, but one thing that is clear is that an attacking addition is needed.
I’d say it’s unwarranted to judge him on his Palace spell, four starts against some of the best teams in the Premier League when you’ve just moved to a brand new country and nothing else for the next year – he was never going to score goals.
However, the Bundesliga is easy to score in if you’ve got talent and he hasn’t quite netted what you might expect. Erling Haaland is one Norwegian striker who everyone wants, and Sorloth scores at a quick pace alongside him for country.
With pace, height and plenty of love and encouragement from passionate manager Hasenhuttl – maybe he just could make him a very decent cut-price addition.
And no, he's probably not going to score at as prolific a rate as Danny Ings, but that's why he cost Aston Villa £30m even at 29-years-old and with one year remaining on his contract.
What do you think..?
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