Alexander Isak has destabilised Newcastle and now Liverpool can inflict further damage | OneFootball

Arne Slot wasn’t really talking about Alexander Isak. Eddie Howe won’t be picking Alexander Isak. Isak isn’t happy with Newcastle. Newcastle aren’t happy with Isak or Liverpool. Newcastle don’t have a striker to start but the player operating instead of one could have gone to Liverpool last summer. Liverpool do have a striker and he is one Newcastle tried to sign this summer. The Alexander Isak derby will not feature Isak, but will be framed around him. Not so much by Slot, who got through a 15-minute press conference with a solitary, late mention of the forward he has tried to buy, but by the wider world.

When they meet at St James’ Park on Monday – which now looks a devilishly clever piece of planning by whoever draws up the fixture list – both sides will be without Isak. Newcastle will be without the £110m they could have banked by accepting Liverpool’s offer. Instead, they have an on-strike striker, accusing them of breaking promises, without specifying precisely who or exactly what was pledged, in Instagram posts.

The statement Newcastle delivered in the transfer market came not in the form of a superstar signing but with a riposte to the man who was their top scorer. “We are clear in response that Alex remains under contract and that no commitment has ever been made by a club official that Alex can leave Newcastle United this summer,” read the reply on the club website.

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Alexander Isak arrived at Newcastle’s training centre after accusing the club of broken promises (Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

Isak joined Mohamed Salah in the PFA Team of the Season; he hasn’t yet in the Liverpool forward line. Newcastle said the “conditions of a sale have not transpired” and perhaps they would have been, but for Liverpool. Newcastle bid for Hugo Ekitike; but so did Liverpool. If Isak looks proof of the greater allure of Anfield, so does the man who is presenting an increasingly compelling case that, actually, Liverpool don’t need the Swede. Ekitike has scored in his first two games for them; find the net at St James’ Park and he will become the first Liverpool player since Daniel Sturridge in 2013 to score in each of his opening three. For Newcastle, it could be a glimpse of the one who got away.

Meanwhile, Newcastle’s ersatz centre-forward is winger Anthony Gordon, the boyhood Liverpool fan who, when PSR meant United needed to sell someone in June 2024, looked tempted by the possibility of a move to Anfield. Perhaps he can empathise with Isak. He was nevertheless held up as the antidote to the refusenik by the Newcastle fans at Villa Park on Saturday, a chorus of Gordon’s name after the final whistle being followed by a pointed chant of “one greedy bastard”.

Newcastle have been frustrated in their attempts to buy forwards: not merely Ekitike but Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap who all, coincidentally or otherwise, ended up at the established order, clubs who were in the cartels known as the big four and the big six. They have also had offers for Yoane Wissa rejected by Brentford.

While Liverpool, propelled by the potency of Ekitike, scored four goals against Bournemouth to begin the defence of their Premier League title, Newcastle drew a blank at Villa Park, despite being the superior side and facing 10 men for the last quarter of the game.

Slot surveyed it from afar and rebuffed talk that Liverpool have plunged Newcastle into crisis. “I don’t think they are a club with troubles,” he said. “They had a very good start against Villa and they were able to get more than the one point they got.”

Although, some would say, they were not able to turn one point into three because they lacked a high-class finisher to convert chances. The rest of the team Liverpool will face on Monday is enviably good.

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Isak scored in Newcastle’s victory over Liverpool in last season’s Carabao Cup final (REUTERS)

“The main thing we have to be ready for is their midfielders, their last line, their three forwards,” said Slot, before making his sole reference to his top target. “Although I assume Isak is not playing, they still Anthony Gordon as a No 9, they have [Anthony] Elanga as a right winger and [Harvey] Barnes from the left and Jacob Murphy is not even playing, who was very good against us twice last season. This is the Premier League; we all have a lot of options and Newcastle have them as well.”

In a different context, it could have been about another summer signing, another man who isn’t playing on Monday. Jeremie Frimpong, whose move from Bayer Leverkusen was made far simpler by the presence of a release clause, suffered a hamstring injury against Bournemouth. Slot is not sure yet if either Conor Bradley or Joe Gomez will be fit to start at right-back.

Last season, centre-back Jarell Quansah had to play out of position as a full-back in the Carabao Cup final. Newcastle won that, just as they had defied Liverpool with an injury-time equaliser in a chaotic 3-3 draw at St James’ Park. But Isak scored in both matches. Liverpool have not yet added him to their attack. Yet while Newcastle are being destabilised and damaged during an unhappy impasse, Liverpool have at least ensured Isak cannot torment their defence on Monday.