Stupidity collides with sleekness in Liverpool’s tale of two strikers: Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak

And to think some worried Hugo Ekitike would be overshadowed by Alexander Isak at Anfield. On the night the £125m man opened his account for his new club, Ekitike contrived to upstage his striking rival, extending Liverpool’s extraordinary record of late deciders and yet creating a vacancy in attack.

For the sixth time in seven games, Liverpool won late on; for the fourth time after they had lost a lead. And yet this drama at the death against Southampton took on a different tone as Ekitike tapped in a centre from the excellent Federico Chiesa and promptly brought his own contribution to an end. Already booked for punching the ball away in a display of dissent, he collected a second yellow card for taking his shirt off in celebration.

The Frenchman has made a fine impression in his brief Liverpool career but this was sheer stupidity. Ekitike will be suspended for Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace. It may make Arne Slot all the more relieved he took Isak off at half-time, albeit without anticipating his replacement would come and go in 40 minutes.

With his watching brief in the second half, Isak had further evidence of Liverpool’s ability to make life difficult for themselves. Their winning habit remains but so, too, does an inability to look completely convincing. A starting 11 costing some £250m – even if half of that went on Isak – and replacements who came for another £120m were pegged back by a team 19th in the Championship, winless since the opening day and with a mere three victories in 52 league matches.

Liverpool were horribly to blame. Wataru Endo met a Saints corner with an awful header, straight to Joshua Quarshie, who helped the ball into Shea Charles’ path. The Northern Ireland international scored his first goal for Southampton.

Perhaps it came a little too early, giving Liverpool time to get a winner, but Southampton could have scored sooner and Slot’s second-string side, like their supposed superiors, lacked solidity.

At half-time, though, as Isak warmed down, they could be satisfied. They could enjoy the sound of a sentence they will expect to hear on many an occasion in the next few years. “The scorer, No 9, Alexander Isak,” came the announcement over the Anfield tannoy. The roar represented the significance. It took the £125m man some 123 minutes to open his account, spread over three appearances. The saga was the wait for him to arrive, not to score.

After the impasse and the acrimony over the summer, with Isak’s start to the season delayed by a different sort of strike, it was his first goal since a penalty for Newcastle and against Brighton on 4 May. His previous goal in the Carabao Cup turned out to be the decider in the final against Liverpool. This was history of a different sort. Sooner or later, he would have become the most expensive player to find the net for an English club, but at least his Liverpool career has not begun with an inauspicious drought.

It was a slick, sleek strike, too: typical Isak, albeit some 42 minutes after he perhaps ought to have scored. He had a golden chance after 45 seconds, which Alex McCarthy saved.

But the goalkeeper was altogether more culpable for Isak’s goal. The Swede finished deftly after a cutback from Chiesa, who had intercepted McCarthy’s poor pass. The goalkeeper is part of the old breed – indeed, he is almost three years older than his manager, the precocious Will Still – and, in a strange sequel, Isak’s first assist of last season came when he latched on to another misplaced ball by McCarthy.

Southampton had shown a different form of generosity. Liverpool had benefited from a remarkable reprieve seconds earlier, Adam Armstrong chipping Giorgi Mamardashvili and seeing the ball bounce back off the bar for Leo Scienza to head wide of a goal lacking a goalkeeper.

Isak had spearheaded a front three with a difference. If Chiesa and Rio Ngumoha will not prove to be his normal supporting cast – or not yet, anyway, in the case of the 17-year-old – Isak combined well with the Italian. The record signing had teed up last summer’s attacking addition for a shot McCarthy parried. After Isak went off, Chiesa had a goal disallowed, crossed when Ekitike headed wide and again when he did score.

Just his fifth Liverpool start was an eventful affair while it was only Ngumoha’s second and Trey Nyoni’s third. While Slot made 11 changes, and also omitted Florian Wirtz, there were debuts for Mamardashvili and Giovanni Leoni.

The Georgian goalkeeper made a flying save to tip away Armstrong’s rising shot but Leoni’s evening, like Ekitike’s but in very different ways, came to an unfortunate end. The Italian defender was stretchered off, leaving Liverpool to worry about him.

A second summer signing faces an enforced absence from the team, in Ekitike. Which gives Liverpool an added reason to be glad Isak is off the mark.