Alexander Isak Faces Hostility on Return to St James’ Park
Alexander Isak barely made it from the coach to the door of St James’ Park before the hostility hit him.
The Liverpool striker, back on Tyneside for the first time since his stormy £125million move to Anfield last September, was met with a wall of noise. “Rat,” came the chant from the waiting Newcastle United fans as he darted towards the entrance, head down, shoulders tight.
It didn’t stop there. During the warm-up the soundtrack was the same: jeers, abuse, and a pointed reminder of how his departure is remembered in these parts. Isak offered only a thin, knowing smile as the boos followed him down the tunnel at the end of the drills. He knew exactly what he had walked into.
So when Liverpool named him in the starting XI, it almost felt like a provocation. A challenge to the home crowd. Every touch in that first half was met with a barrage of X-rated chants, the volume cranked up with every miscontrol, every misplaced pass, every moment he drifted out of the game.
There was one brief twist. When referee Stuart Attwell waved away what looked like a foul on Isak, leaving the forward furious on the turf, St James’ Park roared its approval. The only cheers he received all afternoon came at his expense.
Those flashes were rare. For most of the opening 45 minutes Isak was stranded, starved of service as Liverpool struggled badly to find any attacking rhythm. Runs went unnoticed, passes never came, and the club’s record signing became a bystander in his own grudge match.
After the break, the chance finally arrived. Cody Gakpo slipped him in, space opened up, and this was the moment the away end had waited for. Instead, Isak leaned back and ballooned his effort high, the miss greeted by a savage roar from the Newcastle support who had spent all day waiting to pounce.
If Andoni Iraola is to build anything meaningful at Liverpool this season, he has to find a way to unlock Isak. This was a sharp reminder of how Arne Slot, not helped by the Swede’s long injury spells, never truly managed it last term.
Florian Wirtz is supposed to be the main supply line, the player to knit it all together. On this evidence, that connection remains badly frayed. The Germany international ran, pressed and chased, but his influence never truly took hold before Iraola replaced him midway through the second half. The promise is there; the end product is not. Not yet.
One small step for Isak: he finished the 90 minutes for the first time in a Liverpool shirt. He was still out there when Dominik Szoboszlai buried a late penalty to snatch a dramatic equaliser, sparking relief among the travelling fans and fury among those who had spent the afternoon on his back.
When the final whistle went and he finally walked off the pitch, the noise followed him again. More abuse, more venom from the stands that once celebrated him. No handshake, no soft landing. Just the cold edge of a rivalry that now feels deeply personal.
This was not the return Isak imagined. It was not the statement Liverpool wanted from their record buy. For club and striker alike, the message was blunt: the price tag is huge, the patience is not, and the real work starts now.
