Liverpool’s Anfield Struggles and Isak’s Impact

Liverpool welcome Brighton on Sunday with a familiar roar building around Anfield – but the old certainty has gone. The stadium that once guaranteed points now comes with a nagging doubt.

Results have improved. The mood has lifted. The football looks sharper. Yet the numbers at home tell a different story, one that grates against a club with Liverpool’s ambitions: five Premier League games at Anfield without a win. For this place, that is not a blip. It is a problem.

And it collides this weekend with something far more reassuring: Alexander Isak’s form.

Isak sharpens Liverpool’s edge

The transformation in Liverpool’s attack since Isak’s return has been immediate and obvious. He missed two games through injury, came back into the starting XI at Brentford – and decided the contest.

That 2-1 win said plenty about where Liverpool are. They went behind, they wrestled control back, and they punished a Brentford side reduced to 10 men. Víctor Munoz dragged them level, Isak finished the job. It was messy at times, awkward often, but when the moment arrived, Liverpool had the player to settle it.

Then came Europe and another test of nerve. Villarreal flew into a 2-0 lead in midweek, threatening to puncture Liverpool’s perfect continental run. Instead, the game turned into a wild 4-3 comeback, the kind of chaotic, breathless night that shows both the best and the worst of this Liverpool side. They thrill. They entertain. They also give themselves far too much to repair.

Isak, off the bench this time, looked what Liverpool need him to be: ready, sharp, decisive in his movement. Afterward, speaking to the club’s website, his assessment was blunt and positive: it was only a short spell out, he felt good, and he sensed the team was in a good place.

The data underlines that confidence. Five goals in six Premier League appearances this season. Four of those goals directly turning games into wins against Ipswich Town, Bournemouth and Brentford. Five in his last five league matches. When Liverpool need a cutting edge, they know exactly where to look.

Anfield: fortress no more

All of which only throws Anfield’s recent league record into harsher light.

Five home league games without a victory is not the kind of streak that usually belongs to Liverpool. You have to go back to 2002-03, when they went seven, and the injury-ravaged 2020-21 season, when they stumbled through eight, to find longer winless runs in the Premier League era.

This is not a team drifting. Performances have picked up, the table looks healthier, the goals are flowing again. Yet at home, in the competition that defines their season, something has been missing – control, ruthlessness, that old inevitability when the Kop sucks the ball towards the goal.

Brighton arrive as a reminder that Anfield still can be a stage Liverpool dominate. The record is clear: one defeat in the last nine home league meetings, with six wins and two draws in that stretch. The only blemish, a 1-0 loss in February 2021, came in the strangest of seasons.

So the pattern favours Liverpool. The form of their centre-forward does too. Isak is in stride, the team is scoring, the European nights are rolling.

Now comes the real examination.

Can this Liverpool side turn Anfield back into a weapon in the league, or will Brighton be the latest to sense vulnerability where once there was only fear?