There have been plenty of great debuts at Anfield, but most came in a Liverpool shirt, not the black-and-white stripes. If Alexander Isak’s first taste of life at Newcastle United was to experience their annual defeat at Anfield, and in particularly cruel fashion, it was in a game that may be destined to be remember for longer on Tyneside than Merseyside.
Fabio Carvalho’s winner was stunning, in its timing as well as its execution, but Isak’s introduction suggested Newcastle’s attempt to bridge the gap from the rest to the best will be accelerated with a superstar striker. This was an explosive way to announce himself for the £63m man. It was a day when Isak got his work permit and his goal; the paperwork arrived at lunchtime, the strike after 37 minutes. It was a strike of unerring accuracy and considerable power, the sort the watching Alan Shearer might have delivered.
The initial indications are that he likes lifting shots over goalkeepers, something that takes a coolness as well as finishing prowess. He beat Alisson for a second time by applying elevation to a second shot; the most marginal of offsides denied him a brace and, perhaps, Newcastle a first win at Anfield in the 21st century. “I was thinking it was going to be a dream debut,” Isak confessed. Take away the small matter of the scoreline and, in a way, it was.
If Eddie Howe’s immediate feeling after Carvalho’s intervention was one of bitter disappointment, the Newcastle manager could take encouragement from a glimpse of the future. Isak’s signing has swelled his spending past £200m but much of it feels astute. Prices can be inflated even without Newcastle’s status as the world’s richest club but Isak appears to have the attributes to explain a club-record cost.
If he felt a revelation, he was not to the man who pursued and purchased him. “I wasn’t surprised,” said Howe. “I know what he is capable of. He looked a threat and his pace was a key outlet for us. He gave us that pace in behind that teams need.”
If both Isak’s goal and the disallowed strike came from bursts in behind the Liverpool defence, his opener also involved the intelligence to recognise a gap created by Miguel Almiron dragging Virgil van Dijk out of position. It was not the only occasion he seemed to win their personal duel and if he is not alone in making the Dutchman look a mere mortal this season – a former Newcastle striker, in Aleksandar Mitrovic, has done that – it still felt auspicious. Indeed, some of Van Dijk’s attributes – speed, height, assurance, a presence, a capacity to look unflustered – seem shared by Isak. His skill was eye-catching: he provided deft turns away from Andy Robertson and Joe Gomez before his disallowed goal.
A more wayward shot nevertheless showed more of his armoury. Isak cut inside from the inside-left channel to strike an effort from the edge of the box. It was the sort of run Thierry Henry seemed to trademark and also offered a way in which he and Callum Wilson could be paired, with the signing from Sociedad starting on the flank.
The striking equation involves a trio of options, two of them Howe signings. They seem opposites: the lumpen Chris Wood lacks the defence-stretching pace Isak possesses and, allied with his resourcefulness, it meant the newcomer could be outstanding as an outlet when Newcastle’s formation became 4-5-1 and he was stranded up front. The New Zealander was a pragmatic buy to stay up, the Swede an ambitious signing designed to propel them to another level. One looks a fringe figure in their future, the other absolutely pivotal. A solitary game was enough to indicate he is a massive upgrade.
Arguably there is a fourth centre-forward, though he has since been reinvented as a talismanic midfielder. If the Joelinton precedent is unlikely to be emulated, his goal droughts were reminders that, at a club indelible associated with centre-forwards, not every striking signing is a success. Whether Michael Owen or Jon Dahl Tomasson, there are examples of attackers whose Newcastle careers did not proceed as planned.
One game does not automatically make Isak the successor to Shearer, Les Ferdinand, Andy Cole, Malcolm Macdonald, Jackie Milburn and Hughie Gallacher but Howe, who is rarely given to hype, was not exaggerating when he said: “He looks a special player.”
What he did away at Anfield, without much training, deprived of many of his most gifted new teammates, in the absent Allan Saint-Maximin, Bruno Guimaraes and Wilson, furthered that impression. Isak could have joined them on the sidelines as the wait for a work permit continued. Howe had to alter his plans and, for once, a manager was happy to do so. “It was a nice disruption,” he said. The news eventually came through; Isak could play. “We were waiting yesterday and today and with the silence fearing the worst.” Instead, those fearing the worst now may now be the defenders who have to face Isak.
