Alexander Isak will, once again, be conspicuous by his absence. The last time the Swede took the field as Liverpool faced Newcastle United, he ended the game in a conversation with Virgil van Dijk that kept the amateur lip-readers busy. He also won Newcastle their first major trophy since the 1960s with a Carabao Cup final decider that should have guaranteed him heroic status for life on Tyneside.
It did not quite work out that way. Isak was the on-strike striker when Newcastle and Liverpool reconvened in August. The United director Jamie Reuben and representatives of the Saudi Public Investment Fund visited him on the day of their game, trying to persuade him to stay. Rio Ngumoha got a 100th-minute winner for Liverpool that night, Newcastle a £125m windfall the following Monday, Liverpool a British record buy.
