Liverpool are letting down Isak but Wirtz criticism is harsh

It’s early days at Liverpool for new coach Andoni Iraola. But what we saw on Sunday was that, with more or less the same players at his disposal as Arne Slot, he is facing the same issues as his predecessor.

And high among them is ensuring Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz start to combine as a partnership.

Surely the duo has to click somewhere along the line if Liverpool are to achieve anything in the immediate future, especially given the amount of money that was spent on them.

Sunday was always going to be a difficult afternoon for Isak given he would be playing the role of pantomime villain with the Newcastle United fans.

The only thing he could do was to stand up and make himself counted, and look to silence the home support by putting the ball into the back of net.

Isak had only one chance and he fluffed it when belting over from Cody Gakpo’s pass. But in truth the service to him wasn’t anywhere near good enough.

Isak is never going to be one of those forwards who is involved all the time in the game, as perhaps Liverpool supporters have got used to over the past decade with the likes of Roberto Firmino and Luis Diaz playing as a false nine.

The Swede is much more like I was as a striker - a proper, dedicated centre forward who is more concerned about scoring goals than anything else.

While you’d always look to link the game and hold the ball up, I didn’t always want to be involved in the build-up play as I was concentrating on making and timing my runs into the box so I could get on the end of things.

That is Isak’s game also. But he needs the team around him to give him the chances, and they really didn’t do that on Sunday.

Wirtz was hit and miss, Rio Ngumoha isn’t the answer on the right flank and the less said about the performance of the two full-backs the better. Add that all together, and it’s no wonder Isak didn’t have much involvement.

Regardless, Isak will know this season he has to start delivering. And the same can be said of Wirtz.

I actually thought some of the criticism of the Germany international on Sunday was a bit harsh. Yes, he could have been more effective, but he at least had a decent opening saved in the first half and was trying to get his fellow forwards into the game.

Gakpo was our best attacker and took his goal really well. There’s absolutely no way we should be looking to sell him this transfer window - we need all the forwards we can get and the Dutchman is very versatile.

Drawing conclusions from Newcastle

Clearly, it’s going to take time for Liverpool to adapt to Andoni Iraola’s methods. And it was important the Reds didn’t lose at Newcastle on Sunday.

Yes, the quality and cohesion was nowhere near there. But the positive for me was that we competed with a fired-up home team and didn’t lack for effort and commitment.

That wasn’t always the case for spells last season, when we appeared far too passive due to the approach under Arne Slot.

While Dominik Szoboszlaii’s equalising penalty was very late, Liverpool didn’t deserve to get beat if you look at the statistics.

Newcastle, though, certainly merited a point, so a draw was the fair result and ensured Iraola wasn't facing major questions straight away as the new head coach.

Liverpool will now have another week on the training ground to improve, and they are going to have to with Nottingham Forest coming to Anfield on Saturday. Forest have shown they know how to get a win on our ground.