WELCOME TO the Liverpool late, late show, Alexander Isak.
Or maybe call it Arne Slot’s Mad, Mad, Mad World, a re-make of the crazy old movie, all about chaos and comedy.
Alexander Isak opened his account with his new club[/caption]
Hugo Ekitike tapped home a crucial late winner[/caption]
But Ekitike was sent off in bizarre circumstances after taking his shirt off in celebration[/caption]
You really can’t make it up when it comes to the start of this campaign for boss Slot and his Premier League champs.
Three times, already, a two – goal lead thrown away only for winners to be plundered, as if from a script that would have been laughed out of town by Hollywood.
This time, against a side struggling under new manager Will Still to recover from last season’s nightmare relegation story, the £130M British record signing scored his first goal since his controversial move from Newcastle United.
But the one thing Slot’s men don’t do is make life boring.
In the end they won this with Hugo Ekitike’s late-minute strike and yet they went so close to once again embarrassing themselves after messing around for almost the whole game and allowing Shea Charles to grab an equaliser in the 76th minute.
Even Ekitike’s winner was touched by some craziness, too. Having replaced Isak at the interval, the £69M front man then picked up a booking.
Having hit the net – much to the relief of Slot and most of Anfield, he then pulled off his shirt in joy – and was given the second yellow card that means he misses Saturday’s Prem clash with Crystal Palace.
All that taking a lot of the glitter off Isak’s opening goal for Slot’s men.
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He will probably have dreamed of the moment maybe forever, but certainly over the summer months as his £130M dragged on and on and on.
And so he will, for sure, remember his first goal for the club he longed to join will go down in the memory bank.
Yet it was so simple, so easy to convert the chance, that he will know that there will be far greater strikes than that one to come.
For sure, too, Alex McCarthy will want to forget the moment he allowed the front man signed for a British record transfer fee from Newcastle United a few weeks ago to beat him.
Just 39 seconds earlier the veteran goalkeeper, 35, capped once for England seven years ago, could have been celebrating.
But Adam Armstrong hit the bar, Leo Scienza missed the rebound with a header he will ALWAYS want to forget and the Prem champs were rocking.
And at the other end McCarthy lost his marbles, trying to pass out from the back.
Federico Chiesa pounced on the blunder that had to be seen to be believed, and Isak, a dozen yards out, couldn’t miss.
Of course there was a buzz around Anfield as Isak – but if anything there was more of one around the full debut of teenage whizzkid Rio Ngumoha.
The 17 year old has already made a name for himself having scored the 100th minute winner in the 3 – 2 triumph at St. James’ Park amidst all the hate surrounding Liverpool’s capture of Isak.
Scienza squandered an ideal chance just moments before Liverpool’s opener[/caption]
Isak soon punished Southampton’s lack of clinicism[/caption]
While the Kop know that they have world – class pedigree in the Swede, they are just as excited about the kid signed from Chelsea – much to the Blues’s fury – in January of last year.
One superstar in Isak cost a British record fee, buttons were paid for the winger born in Newham, London and every time he got the ball – playing wide on the left, the fans bubbled with excitement.
Yet they should also have been on their feet for Isak in the first minute as the 26-year-old was presented with the first real chance of his new career.
He was just 14 yards out, right in the middle of the Saints box and let fly but McCarthy, this time at least, able to swat the shot away – perhaps too easily, actually.
But the Scandinavian smiled. He looked relaxed, he looked like he felt like he was at home, content that many more such opportunities would come his way – just not the kind of opportunity from which he would open his account.
Slot wasn’t smiling, however, about how opponents finding things difficult to readjust to life in the Championship under new boss Will Still after last season’s miserable relegation, were able to get at his eleven-change side.
Ekitike’s showed his name to the fans after scoring his winner[/caption]
While the home support were still grumbling about that Isak miss, Adam Armstrong saw a strong shot deflected for a corner, Joe Gomez having gone to sleep in the centre of the Liverpool defence.
Slot’s side usually have a bit if a slumber as we’ve repeatedly seen in this campaign, but on this occasion they were nodding off as early as the 6th minute as Armstrong – Toon born and one who would have loved to be a Geordie hero, moved forward again.
He hadn’t scored in 19 games until bagging a strike at the weekend in a 3 – 1 defeat at Hull City, but he looked sharp as a tack as he delivered a piledriver that Giorgi Mamardashvili, making his debut a cover for No 1 Alisson, did brilliantly to tip over.
The Georgian, signed for £29M from Valencia in the summer of last year but allowed to spend the season with the La Liga club, looked mighty relieved.
So, too, did Slot, having made eleven changes from the side that beat Everton 2 – 1 on Saturday, will have expected far more from his side – expecting at least some sort of flavour of the DNA that energised his first-choice side towards a perfect six-win start to the campaign.
In the 43rd minute things looked much more embarrassing as the Saints, determined to show guile as well as guts, broke forward again.
The move, with Liverpool all but snoozing by not, ended with an Armstrong header that hit the bar.
Following up was Scienza and from the re-bound all he had to do was nod the ball forward with Mamardashvili stranded – his miss, ultimately, would prove a mortal blow to the Saints.
