LONDON — For Alexander Isak, this could truly be the moment when everything went wrong. Not that the 10 minutes before his goal particularly indicated that British football's record signing was on the verge of anything, but there is nothing that can snap a player out of a prolonged funk like a goal. Moreover, his goal put Liverpool ahead in a game in which they decisively failed to impose themselves, despite Tottenham's difficulties.
These were the moments you pay $175 million for. They were all too rare for Liverpool, beating Tottenham 2-1.
However, much to Isak's compassion, they may not be becoming much more common anytime soon. It was yet another click that threatens to define this day. Or maybe it was a jar, jam, or something even more durable. Whatever the nature of the damage done to Isak, when Micky van de Ven collided with him long before the shot was taken, it was enough to rob the Liverpool number nine of what might otherwise have been a moment of ecstasy. Neither Isak nor his teammates should have been happy. Dark and worried faces soon surrounded the Swede, who writhed on the floor in agony, one hand covering his eyes and the other clutching his left knee. He seemed to fear the worst.
A stretcher may not have been required, but the worst fears were hardly allayed as Isak hobbled down the touchline at agonizing speed, his weight resting on two Liverpool physios. Suddenly, all sorts of fears came crashing into view. When can Isak return to start his first year at his new club? Vera is a broken legwhich would potentially sideline him for the next few months, a small bonus to what could potentially be a season-ending injury. Isn't that what any buyer would always fear from a player whose Newcastle career was marked by streaks of seven or eight games on the sidelines? What about the World Cup and March qualifying, where Sweden could really use one of the world's best strikers?
For Arne Slot, it was too early for such a doomer, although he admitted that his intuition was not positive. “I don’t have any news about him,” he said Saturday. “If a player scores, gets injured, doesn’t go on the field and doesn’t try… It’s usually this is not good. I can't say anything more. It's just intuition. Nothing medical.
“I didn't talk to him about his feelings, but it's nice that he scored. Good goal, assisted by Florian Wirtz.”
Slot may be intent on finding a better side, but the story of this season seems to be that no matter how much they spend, Liverpool can't have good things. Not for the first time this season, a moment of triumph passed in an instant. Also gone is the hint that Slot's team could have been given more time to create those automatisms that they so clearly lack.
Isak's goal was the moment the rest of the Premier League had been dreading ever since Martin Edwards parked Brink's truck outside St James's Park and made an offer that even Saudi Arabia couldn't refuse. One clumsy moment from Christian Romero – the first of many – and the ball ricocheted off Alexis McAllister and into Isak's path. Clever play with a delay with his back to goal and then the number nine passed the ball to Hugo Ekitika, whose first pass found Wirtz on the move. That long-awaited first goal showed no signs of nervousness as the pass came in at just the right moment and Isak struck low and past Guglielmo Vicario.
“That’s something we’d really like,” Slote said. “Good finish, good pass. Let's not get too negative just yet. We don't know. Let's hope he returns to us soon. It's hard to say.”
This may look like an overstatement of attack, which had a lot to do with how little else Liverpool offered in an attacking sense. Ekitika's header 10 minutes into the opener gave them enough of a cushion to hold off a late attack, but against 11, 10 or nine players, Liverpool were never able to get the ball rolling. It was one thing to lose to Spurs by five to one in the period before Xavi Simons' red card; Tottenham controlled the game quite well in the early stages. The fact that the score has since been 10-7 in Tottenham's favor speaks both to Liverpool's inability to exploit possession and territory and to the late attack brought on by Richarlison's poor finish seven minutes from time.
Liverpool found themselves clinging to the deaths of nine men, partly because football is a profoundly stupid sport despite its low-scoring nature, partly because referee John Brooks' decisions caused an uproar in Tottenham that cost at least one extra man, and mainly because they couldn't handle the ball effectively enough. It's not the first time they've faced off against 10 men – they came back with an even more thrilling comeback against Newcastle – and Slott appears to know something that's stopping Liverpool from imposing themselves on teams.
“It's always difficult. If I try to explain why it's difficult, then people tell me, “You're talking too much to your future opponents.”
“When we had the ball, that's what hurt me the most. In nine minutes of stoppage time, I think they had 95% of the ball. Every time we had the ball, we gave it away or pushed it away. It was unbelievable that we couldn't keep the ball a little longer.”
This seems to be yet another problem on top of the other that has plagued Slote for much of this season: his team is being overcome too easily by counter-attacking opponents. There were glimpses of it, a breakaway chance for Randal Kolo Muani in the 10-man, but until the late drama it felt more like an Inter game, a match in which Liverpool filled the center to drown out some of the drama as the match progressed. The logic behind this should be that when opponents' indiscipline allows them to apply extra control, they turn it into shots and goals.
Instead, the quasi-diamond of recent games was more of a lump of coal, with rough edges, with Mac Allister finding himself alongside Ekitike and Wirtz roaming high and low in pursuit of the ball. For this system to be effective, defenders must be at the top of their game. Conor Bradley had problems with his radar before he left the field injured at half-time and too many of Milos Kerkez's crosses hit Tottenham's first shirt. The left flank in particular has never moved forward and moving into more central areas does not appear to be the best use of Kerkes, a line striker who could offer the width this team too often lacks.
Such are the problems Liverpool have created for themselves following a half-billion-dollar overhaul of the champions that appears to have left them short on wingers and centre-backs while they are oversaturated with players who would be happiest in the space between midfield and the front line. This may be a team in need of a refocus, but when you have as much talent as Slot can call upon, there's always the prospect of something clicking. No What, however.
