Alexander Isak has just seen what Liverpool need as Arne Slot's suspicions strengthened

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Ian Doyle with the talking points as he assesses Liverpool's dismal Premier League defeat at Manchester City on Sunday afternoonShortly before full-time on this chastening afternoon for Liverpool, the television cameras panned to the visiting bench. The Reds didn’t manage a single shot on target before the break.Both Florian Wirtz and Mohamed Salah worked hard but became increasingly frustrated, the latter, so often the scourge of City, missing a good chance late on.That this was only the second time in 49 Premier League games under Arne Slot that Liverpool had failed to score shouldn’t disguise the fact the forward line isn’t functioning properly.The Reds need a reset.

And the international break should be a time for Slot to come up with an attacking masterplan – with £125million Isak and £116m Wirtz the fulcrum.Reds draw wrong conclusionIt doesn’t seem the most obvious demonstration of Liverpool’s many issues this season. But it’s telling the Reds have yet to draw a single game this season.Had they, for example, seen out the games at Chelsea and Crystal Palace, those extra two points – and having lost two fewer league games – would have vastly changed the current perception.Simply, this Liverpool team are not durable enough, this the first time they have lost four successive away league games since the dying embers of Kenny Dalglish’s second reign in April 2012.While collectively the defending, particularly in midfield areas, was below the standards of recent wins against Aston Villa and Real Madrid – Slot taking responsibility for that due to his tactics – there were some iffy individual outings, not least Ibrahima Konate.The Reds have now shipped 17 goals in the Premier League already.

In the top 15, only Bournemouth have conceded more.At least Giorgi Mamardashvili couldn’t be faulted, his penalty save from Erling Haaland at least keeping Liverpool in the game a little longer and meaning since the start of last season, no player in Europe’s top five leagues has saved more penalties.But that was a rare positive on an afternoon of such negativity for Liverpool.Ref justice doesn’t helpSlot was in full flow during his usual pre-match media activities in a side room at the AXA Training Centre on Friday when, having touched upon the fact referee decisions haven’t exactly gone in Liverpool’s favour of late, he cut himself short and walked off to almost comic effect.Nobody of a Red persuasion was laughing, though, when the Dutchman had his suspicion strengthened seven minutes before the interval here.There was plenty to dislike about Liverpool’s dismal first-half showing. But goals change games and, after berating the lack of set-piece return in the Premier League, Slot saw his team respond with Virgil van Dijk powering a header into the far corner from Salah’s delivery to equalise Haaland’s opener.Gianluigi Donnarumma had no chance of making a save.