Without doubt the worst moment of Liverpool’s dismal title defence season came when Hugo Ekitike ruptured his Achilles at Anfield against PSG last April. Not only did it rule a talented forward out until 2027, it left Liverpool relying on Alexander Isak this season and that already feels scary.Watching Isak at St James’ Park yesterday was painful. Where once – during his time at Newcastle – there was certainty and instinctive confidence, there is now only hesitancy and doubt.Isak used to take penalties for his old club but when Liverpool won one in the 96th minute yesterday, I almost hoped he wouldn’t take it. He didn’t.But Liverpool need him. They really need him and that already feels like a problem for Andoni Iraola as he tries to navigate the early weeks of his time as Liverpool manager. As Liverpool laboured in the latter stages against Newcastle, Isak offered absolutely nothing but he stayed on the field simply because Iraola didn’t really have any other option. Alexander Isak must succeed for Liverpool – their early season prospects depend on itLast summer – the summer of 2025 – saw a number of No 9s arrive at our big clubs. Isak to Liverpool, Benjamin Sesko to Manchester United, Liam Delap to Chelsea and Viktor Gyokeres to Arsenal. None have had it easy so Isak is not alone.Indeed as the Premier League returned this weekend, none bar Isak started for their teams. Sesko and Gyokeres were on the bench and Delap has been frozen out entirely by new coach Xabi Alonso at Chelsea.The difference is that United, Arsenal and Chelsea have alternatives. They can afford to start their season with big name strikers as impact players. Iraola and Liverpool do not have that option.Cody Gakpo – criminally under-rated by some members of the Liverpool fanbase – delivered with a big goal for Liverpool yesterday and could – at a push – play through the middle. Florian Wirtz – who faces challenges of his own at Anfield – could feasibly operate as a false nine. But neither is a convincing alternative.What Liverpool really need is for Isak to start playing like a £125m centre forward – or indeed any kind of centre forward at all. Currently he looks miles off.It was never going to be easy returning to St James’ Park where even Newcastle manager Matthias Jaissle was whipping up the crowd’s vitriol towards a player who once scored 54 Newcastle league goals at more than a goal every other game. It will feel more straightforward for him when Liverpool host Nottingham Forest at Anfield next Saturday lunchtime.But at the moment Isak looks like a player who doesn’t trust either his body or his mind and that has to change very soon.Iraola doesn’t have the option of asking him to find his form gradually. That was last season’s luxury.It really has to happen now. Liverpool’s early season prospects may depend upon it.Jaissle must look in the mirrorNewcastle coach Jaissle looks as though he will be a lively and entertaining presence on the touchline. But the German was wrong to blame referee Stuart Attwell for the late penalty decision that denied his team victory. The contact from the otherwise excellent Lewis Hall on Liverpool substitute Victor Munoz was clear.Indeed Jaissle may wish to examine his own part in what happened given that the foul came in time added on by Attwell for a totally unnecessary Newcastle substitution.Jaissle’s decision to replace Yoane Wissa with Fabian Schar in the last minute of added time was clearly designed to waste some precious moments. But all it did was prompt Attwell to add 30 seconds on and it was after 15 of those that Munoz ran at Hall to win the spot-kick.New guidelines this season mean that players must leave the field within 10 seconds of their number being raised or risk a booking. This means that the classic ‘time wasting’ substitution is even more pointless than ever.Is MOTD losing its identity? It felt strange to see Mark Chapman at Newcastle for Sky the day after he had hosted the season’s opening Match of the Day. It is something that chips away a little at the identity of the BBC’s flagship show.TNT, meanwhile, chose to use The Athletic’s ace news breaker David Ornstein as one of their pre-match panellists at the Hull-Man Utd game which felt a little like a desperate attempt to jump on the back of his enormous social media following.As for Wayne Rooney, he continues to struggle to look truly comfortable in the MOTD chair. Joe Hart and Danny Murphy were on this occasion a better combination on the Sunday show than Rooney and Alan Shearer had been 24 hours earlier. Joe Hart and Danny Murphy were better than Wayne Rooney and Alan Shearer as punditsA wake-up call for CarrickMichael Carrick will now know that it really feels like to be a Manchester United manager after his team’s lame defeat on Humberside.Last season was a free hit for Carrick after he succeeded Ruben Amorim as an interim at Old Trafford. Now that he has the job, it is completely different. This is his team and therefore his responsibility.It was on the one hand hard not to admire Carrick’s frankness in his post-match interviews.When, for example, it was suggested by former Middlesbrough striker Jan Age Fjortoft – now an excellent analyst for foreign rightsholder Viaplay – that his team had lacked ‘passion’. Carrick almost bit his head off.’That is ridiculous,’ said Carrick. ‘You played football. You [should] understand.’On the other, Carrick will soon come to learn just how every single word he utters – especially after defeat – will be picked apart by a fanbase that grows ever more impatient for a league title.For example, he spoke ahead of the Hull game about his team’s spine offering him cause for comfort only to see one of the players he name-checked – centre half Harry Maguire – start the season as though he was still on the beach.The sooner central defenders learn to concentrate on the ball at set pieces the better. When the first Hull goal went in, for example, Maguire was still so intent on holding his man that he actually had both arms wrapped round team-mate Noussair Mazraoui.It was schoolboy stuff. Harry Maguire started the season as though he was still on the beach for Man UnitedWho can be the new Sunderland? Hull’s victory may yet transpire to be a rare highlight in a hard season but it is impossible not to be pleased for a group of supporters who have been through so much since they last watched Premier League football a decade ago.Indeed both Hull and fellow promoted club Ipswich have followed Sunderland’s example of last summer by recruiting heavily to try and repurpose themselves for top-flight football.Sunderland fielded almost a new team as they flew high last season and a year on Hull have arrived in the Premier League with seven new players – three were in the team that beat United – while Ipswich fielded seven newbies as they beat the Wearsiders at Portman Road.Ipswich are among the biggest spenders in the Premier League, having shelled out more than £150m. As Sunderland prepare to play European football this season, it seems they may have started something.Savinho deal doesn’t add upTottenham have also spent heavily but after their thumping at Brentford it may be a while until we see what they will actually look like under Roberto de Zerbi.De Zerbi is still without a number of his best players – guys like Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro were not fit to start on Saturday – while one of his anticipated new signings – the Egyptian wide player Omar Marmoush – was actually on the bench for Manchester City yesterday.So there is much still to come for Spurs fans even if there will be pressure on Tottenham’s new executive team for their signings to work out.Paying Newcastle £100m for Sandro Tonali feels rather top heavy but that pales when compared to the £75m Tottenham have agreed to give City up front for the Brazilian winger Savinho.The 22-year-old arrived at the Etihad for £30m two summers ago and has made only a modest impact with two Premier League goals and twelve assists.So who at Tottenham has decided that a 150 per cent increase on value feels like a good deal? It already feels like one of the strangest transfers in recent Premier League history and if it doesn’t work Spurs fans will want answers. Roberto de Zerbi has seen a number of expensive additions arrive at TottenhamArteta spot-on with Martinelli Arsenal’s squad depth is increasingly impressive – the likes of Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Max Dowman, Gyokeres and Martin Zubimendi were all on the bench as the champions beat Coventry – which is why Mikel Arteta feels comfortable in moving on Gabriel Martinelli.Gunners legend Ian Wright claims Arteta’s treatment of the Brazilian has been unnecessarily brutal. Martinelli was not involved at all on Friday or indeed at the Community Shield a week earlier.But Arteta’s track record at ruthlessly shipping players out when they have served their purpose is there for all to see.The likes of Kieran Tierney, Granit Xhaka and Oleksandr Zinchenko all played significant roles in Arsenal’s gradual return to eminence under the Spaniard. Indeed all three captained the club at some stage.But all were invited to further their career elsewhere once their shelf life was reached. It can feel a little cold-hearted at times. But it has worked for Arsenal and that’s what matters.New hope for England England assistant manager Anthony Barry – last seen struggling to hold back the tears at half-time of England’s World Cup win over France – was on his native Merseyside to watch Everton down wasteful Crystal Palace and there was lots to take in.A fabulous goal from the talented Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and an assured display from Adam Wharton will have reminded Barry and his boss Thomas Tuchel that it’s possible to do something other than pack an England squad with wingers.But Barry will also (hopefully) have noted a decent afternoon from talented Everton central defender Jarrad Branthwaite.The Cumbrian is one of the most naturally gifted centre halves in England but has seen his progress stalled by injury. He is 24 now and it would help England enormously if he stepped up.Ezri Konsa and new Manchester City ‘midfielder’ Marc Guehi (what on earth was all that about yesterday?) were very much 6/10 at the World Cup and could do with competition that isn’t called Dan Burn.Glasner needs history lesson Former Palace manager Oliver Glasner is now at Nottingham Forest and that still feels like an odd swap, given Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis goes through managers like I go through tissues in hay fever season.After an opening defeat to Leeds at the City Ground, Glasner suggested that it was impossible for him to suddenly make his team play like Real Madrid in the 1970s.It was a strange thing to say, not least because Real were not winning big European trophies in that era.A team who were? Forest, of course. The club’s two European Cup wins came in 1979 and 1980. Oliver Glasner made strange comments about how Nottingham Forest could playStill too many kid glovesIt was heartening to see a Premier League weekend pass without any notable VAR moments. Long may Howard Webb’s ‘high bar for intervention’ continue. But he said this last season, too, and we know what happened.Much of the responsibility for change continues to rest with the players, though, and that’s particularly the case when it comes to all the messing about at corners and other set pieces.As we watched Man City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma wrestle with a Bournemouth player at a corner on the TV in the Newcastle press room yesterday, a voice from the back piped up.’It’s like watching kids in a playground,’ she said. It was perfectly put.Farewell King Kev Alan Shearer – said to be scaling back his TV schedule this season – was in Newcastle to witness a fabulous and moving tribute to the late Kevin Keegan by two of his former clubs at St James Park. It really was a super effort by Newcastle and Liverpool and it was fitting that Keegan’s family and grandchildren were in the stadium to witness it.Sometimes football manages to get things very right indeed.