Liverpool's Anfield Dilemma and Isak's Impact

Liverpool arrive at Sunday’s clash with Brighton with a spring in their step and a stone in their shoe. The results have improved, the goals are flowing again, the mood music is upbeat. Yet Anfield, the old fortress, has started to feel strangely vulnerable.

Momentum, yes. Control, not quite.

A team that won ugly, then wild

Andoni Iraola’s side showed the right kind of edge after being taken apart 3-0 by Manchester City. The response against Brentford was not pretty, but it was exactly what a serious team needs.

They trailed. They struggled. Then the game flipped.

Brentford went down to 10 men, and Liverpool pounced. Víctor Munoz dragged them level, Alexander Isak finished the job in a 2-1 win that felt more like a grind than a showcase. It mattered precisely because it was awkward and scrappy, yet increasingly controlled once they had their noses in front.

Then came the European drama. Villarreal raced into a 2-0 lead in midweek, only for Liverpool to haul themselves back and eventually edge a 4-3 thriller. The perfect record in Europe this season survives, but not without a scare. The attack thrills, the defence invites trouble, and Liverpool keep asking themselves to escape holes they have dug.

Enter Isak.

Isak sharpens the edge

His return has changed the tempo of Liverpool’s front line. After two games out injured, he walked straight back into the starting XI at Brentford and delivered the winner. Against Villarreal, he stepped off the bench and looked immediately up to speed again, moving with the conviction of a player who knows the penalty area belongs to him.

He put it simply to liverpoolfc.com: it was only a short spell out, he feels good, and he senses the team is “in a good place” and he is “excited”. The evidence supports every word.

Five goals in six Premier League appearances this season. Four of those strikes have directly decided victories – against Ipswich Town, Bournemouth and Brentford. He has also scored in each of his last five league games. When Liverpool need the game to tilt, it is Isak who is leaning on the scales.

Right now, their cutting edge has a very clear face.

The fault line at Anfield

And yet the problem they cannot ignore stands right in front of them: Anfield’s aura has dimmed in league play.

Liverpool are winless in their last five home Premier League matches. For a club with genuine ambitions at the top end of the table, that is not just an irritation. It is costly. Only twice in the Premier League era have they endured longer home winless runs: seven games in 2002-03, eight in the strange, closed-door season of 2020-21.

The ground that once guaranteed points now offers questions.

There is at least comfort in the history with Brighton. Liverpool have lost just one of their last nine home league meetings with them, winning six and drawing two. The lone blemish came in February 2021, a 1-0 defeat that still stands out precisely because it is so rare.

So the stage is set.

Liverpool have the striker in form. They carry the better recent momentum. They face an opponent they usually manage at Anfield.

Now comes the real test: can this team make their stadium feel like a weapon again, or will Brighton stroll into a ground that no longer scares anyone?