Liverpool's Fightback Against Newcastle: A Draw with Questions
Last season at St James’ Park, Liverpool walked away in a state of delirium, Rio Ngumoha the teenage hero with a 100th-minute winner. Same fixture, same late drama. Very different feeling.
This time it was Dominik Szoboszlai keeping their opening-day record intact, burying a 99th-minute penalty for a 2-2 draw that felt less like euphoria and more like a deep exhale. A first defeat on the opening weekend since 2012-13 was looming. The point keeps that statistic intact. It does not hide the problems.
Iraola’s fightback – and his warning
Andoni Iraola fronted up afterwards. His team had trailed twice in a ferocious St James’ Park, yet refused to fold.
"It's probably not the result you want when you come in before the game but we definitely deserve this point and even more," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "The team has never given up and we've recovered one point and probably the taste is better because we score in the last minute."
He’ll sleep fine with the result. The performance is another matter.
On the plane back to Merseyside, the gaps in his squad will have felt louder than the roar he’d just left behind. The comeback showed character. It also underlined how thin the options are for a manager with top-four expectations hanging over him.
Former Scotland winger Pat Nevin did not sugar-coat it on 5 Live.
"You're expecting Liverpool to get top four this season at least but they didn't look like a top four team today," he said. "There are more players to come in, so you can't make a real decision on how their season is going to go.
"There's a definite lack of creativity and somehow they must get the best out of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak because you certainly didn't get the best out of them today."
Wirtz, Isak and a hostile homecoming
All the pre-match noise wrapped itself around two names: Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak.
Isak, prised from Newcastle in a long-running saga last September, was greeted with boos every time he touched the ball. He looked up for the fight, racking up 28 touches, snarling into duels, yet when the big chance came in the second half, he squandered it – exactly the sort of opening he so often buried in black and white.
Wirtz began brightly, drifting into pockets and trying to knit things together, but his influence faded. He was withdrawn just after the hour, moments after Newcastle had gone 2-1 up, his afternoon drifting away with the game.
Both arrived for nine-figure fees last summer. Both know this level demands more – more end product, more connection, more authority. Right now, Liverpool’s attack still feels like a collection of pieces, not a completed picture.
The Gakpo dilemma
Nowhere is that uncertainty clearer than in the Cody Gakpo question that hangs over the final week of the transfer window.
If Liverpool land the two attacking players they want, Gakpo could be the one to go. The club have been linked with Paris St-Germain’s Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye and have already seen two bids knocked back for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh.
The irony? Gakpo was their standout performer here.
He took his goal superbly, carrying the greatest threat in a disjointed display. While others flickered, he burned. On this evidence, offloading him would be a gamble, yet the market may force Liverpool’s hand.
There was at least another bright spark. Spanish forward Victor Munoz, on debut from the bench, injected life into a flagging attack and won the late penalty Szoboszlai converted. His impact was instant, his direct running finally asking real questions of a tiring Newcastle back line.
Ngumoha’s struggle and a thin bench
Munoz’s arrival came at the expense of Ngumoha, whose afternoon told a very different story to last August’s fairytale.
The 17-year-old, who turns 18 next week, spent much of his youth career operating from the left. Iraola, determined to mould wingers who can operate on both flanks, stationed him on the right. It did not work. Ngumoha toiled, struggled to influence the game and was hooked just after the hour.
Whether that experiment survives once new attackers arrive is an open question.
What is not in doubt is the need for reinforcements. Once Munoz and Alexis Mac Allister came on in the 63rd minute, Iraola looked down his bench and saw only Giorgi Mamardashvili, Ronald Araujo, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas, Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Lewis Koumas.
Plenty of industry. Not much game-changing firepower.
Exposed on the break
At the other end, Liverpool creaked badly.
Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong both endured rough outings at full-back, repeatedly caught high and out of position. Newcastle punished them on the counter for both goals, slicing through a midfield that offered little protection.
The absence of a specialist defensive midfielder screamed through the game. When Joe Willock fired Newcastle 2-1 ahead, Iraola’s response was telling: Mac Allister dropped in just ahead of the back four, an emergency shield rather than a long-term solution.
The numbers are damning. Since the start of last season, no Premier League side has conceded more goals from fast breaks in all competitions than Liverpool’s nine. This is not a blip. It is a pattern.
Early signs under Iraola
For all that, Iraola cut a largely satisfied figure, true to his preference for debriefing a day later, when the emotion has cooled.
"I've liked a lot of the things I've seen from the team," he said. "There's definitely things to improve like the goals but I've seen a lot of things I've liked from the team. I've liked the energy, especially the players coming from the bench. I think we finished the game quite strong physically."
Szoboszlai echoed that defiance on Sky Sports.
"We will never give up. I can guarantee you that," he said. "We have to fight every time - all day long during the 90 minutes. Everybody who came off the bench also made an impact as well. We need the whole squad and we need to be ready."
Desire has never been the issue on Tyneside. It isn’t the issue now. The question is sharper, more unforgiving.
With the window closing and expectations fixed on a top-four push, can this Liverpool squad, as currently built, match its heart with the quality and depth a long season will demand?
