LONDON — For Alexander Isak, this really might have been the moment where it all went click. Not that the 10 minutes leading up to his goal had particularly suggested that British football’s record signing was on the brink of something, but there is nothing to drag a player out of a prolonged funk like a goal. All the more so given that his goal dragged Liverpool ahead in a game that they resolutely failed to impose themselves on, no matter the difficulties of Tottenham.
These were the moments that you pay $175 million. They have been altogether too infrequent for Liverpool, 2-1 winners at Tottenham.
Cruelly for Isak, however, they might not be much more frequent for some time yet. It was the other click that threatens to define this day. Or perhaps it was a jar, a jam or something even more heavy-duty. Whatever the nature of the damage done to Isak as Micky van de Ven collided with him well after the shot was away, it was enough to rob Liverpool’s No. 9 of what might otherwise have been a moment of ecstasy. There was to be no celebration from Isak nor from his teammates. Dark and worried faces soon surrounded the Swede, who squirmed on the floor in agony, one hand covering his eyes as the other clung onto his left knee. He seemed to fear the worst.
A stretcher may not have been required, but the worst fears hardly seemed allayed as Isak hobbled along the touchline at agonizing pace, his weight placed on two Liverpool physios. Suddenly, all manner of fears came crashing into view. When might Isak be back to fire life into year one at his new club? Isn’t this what any buyer would always have feared from a player whose Newcastle career was pockmarked with runs of seven or eight games on the sidelines? What of the World Cup and, indeed, the qualifiers in March, where Sweden could really do with one of the best strikers in the world? That’s what knee injuries do. For all the advances in rehabilitation and recovery, they are still the ones that have you fearing the worst.
For Arne Slot, it was much too soon for such doomerism, though he admitted that his gut feeling was not a positive one. “I don’t have any news on him,” he said. “If a player scores and gets injured and doesn’t come on the pitch and also doesn’t try … That’s usually not a good thing. I cannot say anything more than that. That is just gut feeling. Nothing medical.
“I haven’t spoken to him about his feeling but it’s a nice thing that he scored. A good goal, assisted by Florian Wirtz.”
Slot might be intent on finding the silver lining but the story of this season seems to be that, no matter how much they spend, Liverpool cannot have nice things. Not for the first time this season, a moment of triumph was swept away in an instant. So too departed a flicker of what Slot’s team might have been given more time to build the automatisms they so clearly lack.
Isak’s goal had been the moment the rest of the Premier League had feared since Martin Edwards parked the Brink’s truck outside St. James’ Park and came up with an offer even Saudi Arabia couldn’t refuse. One clumsy moment from Cristian Romero — the first of many — and the ball was ricocheting off Alexis Mac Allister and into Isak’s path. Smart hold-up play with his back to goal and then the No. 9 slipped the ball to Hugo Ekitike, whose first-time pass found Wirtz in stride. That long-awaited first goal contribution betrayed no nerves, a pass played at just the right moment for Isak to bend one low and across Guglielmo Vicario.
“That’s what we would like to see happening a lot,” said Slot. “Good finish, good pass. Let’s not be too negative yet. We don’t know. Let’s hope he’s back with us soon. Difficult to say.”
This may feel like an overhype of an attack that was as much to do with how little else Liverpool offered in an attacking sense. A header from Ekitike 10 minutes after the opener gave them enough of a cushion to hold off a late charge but against 11, 10 or nine men, Liverpool never got going. It was one thing to get outshot five to one by Spurs in the period before Xavi Simons’ red card; Tottenham controlled the game rather well early on. The fact that it was 10 to seven in Tottenham’s favor from then on speaks as much to Liverpool’s inability to exploit possession and territory as it does the late charge brought about by Richarlison’s scrappy finish seven minutes from time.
Liverpool found themselves clinging on against nine men at the death partly because football is a deeply silly sport for how low-scoring it is, somewhat because the decisions of referee John Brooks stoked an indignation in Tottenham that was worth at least one extra man and predominantly because they could not do enough with the ball. This isn’t the first time they’ve found themselves hanging on against 10 men — against Newcastle, they roared back in more thrilling fashion — and it seems there is something that Slot is aware of that is making it harder for Liverpool to impose themselves on teams.
“It’s always difficult. If I try to explain why it is difficult then people tell me afterwards, ‘you say too much to your future opponents.’
“When we had the ball, that was what hurt me the most. In the nine minutes of added time, I think they had 95% of the ball. Every time when we had the ball, we kicked it away or we threw it away. It was unbelievable that we couldn’t keep the ball a bit longer.”
That feels like another problem on top of the other one that has dogged Slot for most of this season: that his team are too easily run through by counterattacking opponents. There were flashes of that, a breakaway chance for 10-man Randal Kolo Muani, but until the late drama, this had more of the feel of the Inter game, a match where Liverpool filled the center to throttle some of the drama out of proceedings. The logic to that should be that when indiscipline from the opponents allows them to apply further control, they turn that into shots and goals.
Instead, the quasi-diamond of recent games was more of a lump of coal, all rough edges as Mac Allister found himself pushed up alongside Ekitike, Wirtz roaming high and low in pursuit of the ball. For this system to be effective, the fullbacks need to be at the top of their game. Conor Bradley was struggling with his radar before his injury-enforced exit at the interval and too many of Milos Kerkez’s crosses crashed into the first Tottenham shirt. The left flank in particular never got going and inverting into more central areas does not seem to be the best use of Kerkez, a flyer down the line who could offer the width this team lacks too often.
Such are the problems Liverpool made for themselves with their half-billion dollar overhaul of the champions, one which seems to have left them light on wingers and center backs while overstuffed with players who would be happiest in the space between midfield and the frontline. This might be a squad that needs reorienting but when you have as much talent as Slot can call upon, there is always the prospect of something clicking. Not that, however.
