Alexander Isak fears clear as UK media offers worrying Liverpool verdict - 'Vision disappeared'

Liverpool made hard work of its 2-1 win over Tottenham, and the victory may have come at a cost after Alexander Isak was forced off immediately after scoring just his second league goal for the club

Alexander Isak was forced off immediately after scoring for Liverpool against Tottenham(Image: Getty Images)

Liverpool gave its top four hopes a major boost with a 2-1 win at Tottenham on Saturday - yet the mood isn’t exactly buoyant given the way in which the game panned out for the Reds.

Goals from Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike, complete with a long-awaited league assist for Florian Wirtz, earned a valuable three points for the visitors in north London, although they did their best to once again throw away a two-goal lead - even against nine men.

In a game in which Tottenham’s beleaguered players lost their heads, with Xavi Simons and Cristian Romero both needlessly sent off, Liverpool still somehow nearly passed up its golden opportunity, and now it is counting the cost of its win.

Isak was forced off injured immediately after scoring, with fears raised that the Premier League’s most expensive player may have sustained a serious problem. As wins go, this was certainly not the sweetest.

As usual, the UK’s media was out in full force to give their verdict on Liverpool’s latest outing. Here’s what they made of the Reds’ victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium…

Sam Wallace - The Telegraph

By the end, Arne Slot’s players were hanging on for a win against a dysfunctional nine-man Tottenham Hotspur team with one of the worst home records in the club’s history – so not all of this felt like a great triumph for the defending Premier League champions.

Liverpool are back up to fifth place and with the first three-game winning streak since their season went into nosedive at the end of September. In many respects it unfolded as Slot and Fenway Sports Group would have hoped: goals for Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike, a Premier League assist at last for Florian Wirtz and no post-match remarks from Mohamed Salah. And yet there was much they will regret.

Hugo Ekitike's header ended up being the winning goal for Liverpool.(Image: 2025 Marc Atkins)

Once again, Liverpool very nearly folded at the end – just as Spurs were themselves doing their best to self-destruct. A strange kind of game between two sides who both seem very close to a crisis of confidence at any moment. There is, for Liverpool, the added concern of an injury to Isak whose brief eight minutes on the pitch after coming on at half-time encompassed much action.

Nick Ames - The Guardian

Who were the big winners here? Certainly not Tottenham, even if they ended the game bellowing, blustering and battering at the door with nine men. The fact they went down fighting in those circumstances, clawing back into contention after controversially going two goals behind, will buoy up the embattled Thomas Frank but that would be to overlook elements of a performance whose discipline deteriorated to their cost.

It may not have been a moment of lift-off for Liverpool, either, although they did eventually wobble to three points. The scales had tipped in their favour when Xavi Simons, with one of those very modern and exasperating video review red cards, was dismissed in the 33rd minute but they looked blunt until the half-time substitute Alexander Isak sent them on their way. As soon as he had done so, the striker departed with a nasty-looking injury. The legacy could be costly regardless of the fact that, almost undetected, Arne Slot’s side have edged themselves back up to fifth, at least until Manchester United visit Aston Villa on Sunday.

Riath Al-Samarrai - Daily Mail

If Alexander Isak is to one day make a success of his move to Liverpool, then it will need to be achieved in the absence of luck. Whatever else folk think of him, the poor fella has none, evidenced by one swing of his left leg that helped win a game and quite possibly wrecked his own season, too.

A full diagnosis of an injury to his knee will come in time, but lengthy treatment and the sight of him being helped from the pitch here stirred fears of a potentially serious issue.

Alexander Isak's injury is a major worry for Liverpool(Image: Getty Images)

If that is the case, it will be desperately unfortunate, not least for the fact that it was sustained in the act of scoring for 1-0 just 11 minutes after entering the game as a half-time substitute.

Sympathy around his previous difficulties has been limited owing to the methods he deployed in leaving Newcastle, but only the cold-hearted wouldn’t feel for him in this scenario, which encompassed a huge contribution to Liverpool winning a wild game.

Jamie Braidwood - The Independent

In a flash, the pieces finally clicked together.

It took less than six seconds for Liverpool’s £300m trio to rip through Tottenham’s 10 men after Cristian Romero’s careless pass from defence. Hugo Ekitike looked up and picked out Florian Wirtz, suddenly free in the space he has spent so much time trying to find. Wirtz took a touch and sensed the run immediately, producing the pass. And there was Alexander Isak, supplying the movement and the first-time finish, as well as the ruthlessness Liverpool wanted when they smashed their transfer record to sign him.

And then, like a window that closed as quickly as it had opened, a vision of Liverpool’s future disappeared.

Isak, upon scoring just his second Premier League goal since his record £125m move from Newcastle, was clattered into by Micky van de Ven as the Tottenham defender attempted the block. The striker’s face revealed the immediate concern, as did the sight of Liverpool’s players cutting their celebrations short. As soon as Isak had lift off, he was grounded again. On as a half-time substitute, he limped off 10 minutes later with an ankle injury that could sideline him for the foreseeable future.