A case of what could’ve been for Newcastle United, who threw away a big chance to secure their first win at Anfield since 1994.
We started brilliantly and were the much better side for the majority of the first half, but Anthony Gordon’s opener was soon cancelled out as a two-minute Hugo Ekitike brace sent Liverpool into the lead at half-time.
A low strike from Barnes almost drew us level in the second half, although that nearly moment was another we’d live to regret as Florian Wirtz made it 3-1 moments later, before Ibrahima Konaté made it four in stoppage time after some awful handling from Nick Pope.
Two mad minutes swung the game just when we looked in control, but we didn’t do enough in the second half, struggling in both boxes and running out of steam after a big effort in Paris just a few days ago.
The result makes it back to back defeats in the Premier League and 16 points dropped from winning positions this season, leaving us 10th in the table, six behind Liverpool and seven behind Chelsea after the Blues came back from 2-0 down to beat West Ham 3-2 in the 5.30pm kick-off.
Howe made three changes and switched back to a 4-3-3. Out came Botman, Miley and Woltemade, and in came Trippier, Barnes and Gordon, with the latter playing in a false nine role.
Bruno wasn’t fit enough to return, meaning Tonali, Ramsey and Willock were tasked to go again in midfield, with Elanga also keeping his place on the right wing after a lively display in midweek.
Newcastle XI: Pope – Trippier, Thiaw, Burn, Hall – Tonali, Willock, Ramsey – Elanga, Gordon, Barnes
Subs: Ramsdale, Botman, Wissa, Osula, J.Murphy, Woltemade, A.Murphy, Shahar, Miley
Liverpool XI: Alisson – Szoboszlai, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez – Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Wirtz – Salah, Ekitike, Gakpo
It was a scrappy yet high-pace start, featuring an early Gordon yellow, a Trippier giveaway that almost got Salah in behind and plenty of Newcastle pressing, giving the hosts little time to settle on the ball.
Gordon was finding pockets of space, we’d forced SEVEN corners in the first 25 minutes and came within inches of making it 1-0 midway through the first half, as Barnes struck a well hit free kick off the post before Hall whipped in a wicked cross that flew inches past Thiaw and then Burn!
We had control of the game and were comfortably the better side, looking confident on the ball and coming out on top in so many of our duels, causing audible groans from the home crowd at Anfield. But we had to make our strong start count – and we soon did!
After Ekitike went close at the other end as Pope did well to stand up to the former Toon target, a quick break saw Barnes move it wide to Gordon, who did the rest emphatically, driving a low shot into the far corner at the Kop. 1-0 Newcastle, a lead we thoroughly deserved and the scouser’s first league goal from open play in just over 12 months.
Sadly, that lead didn’t last long, as Liverpool hit back not just once but twice before the break, scoring twice in two minutes. Wirtz danced past black and white shirts in the box and his low ball was fired under Pope by Ekitike, who would then score again moments later. We were caught too high up the pitch and Ekitike was devastating, bursting past Thiaw, who didn’t do nearly enough to stop the shot, before finishing nonchalantly into the far corner. 2-1 Liverpool.
Such a brutal end to what had been a hugely encouraging half before a mad two minutes, especially when the difference maker was a man Eddie Howe has tried to sign not once but twice!
A huge 45 minutes awaited, and we came out from the break like a side who still believed, going close through Barnes for the second time as his low shot was stopped superbly by Alisson. However, it was very nearly 3-1 moments earlier as Ekitike burst through and, for once, got his finish all wrong.
After a competitive start to the second half, we started to fade around the hour mark and we were quickly punished. Another poor goal to concede, this time it was poor marking in the box, as Wirtz found too much space from Salah’s cut-back, took a touch and struck in off the post. 3-1 and it felt like game over.
We’d become sloppy, our attacks suddenly lacked zip and Howe reacted with three changes with 72 minutes on the clock, seeing Wissa, Woltemade and Murphy replace Barnes, Elanga and Willock.
The next change saw Osula appear for the first time in months following a foot issue, as the big Dane replaced an out of sorts Trippier with just over five minutes to go. At this point, we had Wissa (ST), Woltemade (CF), Osula (RW) and Gordon (LW) all on the pitch, but we looked like a beaten side at this stage, struggling to get on the ball or break down a Liverpool side who’d taken full control.
Then, in stoppage time, Liverpool made it four with a little help from Pope, who dropped a simple corner he had to catch, allowing Konate to score. A sad end to a match that started so well. Where Liverpool responded quickly to going a goal behind, we seemed to run out of ideas and energy.
In many ways, it’s a game that sums up so much of our season. Moments of promise, but not a 90-minute display, with misses at one end while on top and lapses in concentration at the other ultimately costing us.
Next up, a Carabao Cup second leg trip to Man City on Wednesday before a Premier League meeting with Brentford at St James’ Park next Saturday.
Keep the faith. Howay the lads!
Olly:-
Called this game when I knew the formation on the blog.
Headline should read Mags Killed by Howe persisting with 4-3-3 away from home.
We have been vulnerable all season away from home with this set up.
Liverpool were there for the taking and we weren’t brave enough to change the set up and be defensively solid.
We are a joke away from home.
I have watched this lot for 68 years since I was 5 and I can’t take any more of the naivety and stupidity from a supposed great manager who people defend and coaches who are no better.
Howe needs replacing by a top class coach who has some imagination.
Joseph(Quote)
On the positive….we gave it a good go for 30 mins.
In the negative…..Liverpool publicly announced that they were unable to play against a low block for weeks. They must have been over the moon to see our lot turn up.
Scott(Quote)
See previous
As I said on the previous thread you sound like farage. Nothing positive , just constant moaning. Get a grip. You make no allowance for what the club is going through or the restrictions that they are operating under. Today the difference was Ekitiki and Alisson.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Good write up Olly, thanks mate. We played well for the first 30 minutes or so up the defence let us down after that. I think Pope could’ve done a lot better. He had a bad day today. Eddie needed to change things much earlier than he did. No issue with 433, but the changes were needed on 60 mins no later. Set pieces though…I thought we had a set piece coach?.? What’s he coaching? How many corners did we waste today? Too many. Hey ho, on to City, where we will get another stuffing.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Joseph….
With all due respect, if you have watched them for 68 years there must have been a hell of a lot more opportunities to say “I can’t take this anymore” than this team we are watching now.
I can think of at least 10 myself.
Scott(Quote)
Nothing comes close to the Bruce years. Bleak
Howe the toon(Quote)
Truly laughable. We spunked £250m in the summer and we’ve seen this exact same game away from home against players like Thiago & Bowen (Brentford & West Ham). Genuinely hilarious if it wasn’t so astounding how you can be so blinded!
Scott(Quote)
Went out tonight so thankfully I missed this, I have to agree with Scott that if this is the worst you’ve seen in 68 years you must have been in a coma for parts of the 80s and most of the fcb tenure.
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
Not sure you can blame Howe for 4-3-3 when we had two fit CBs.
Can’t stick with a back three when Botman, Schar, Krafth and Lascelles weren’t available.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Olly:-
What was Botman doing on the bench then?
Yes, to the others who have passed comment, I have witnessed some diabolical performances and managers over many years but we are now supposed to be trying to be consistent in trying to remain in the top 6 or thereabouts.
We are not learning from previous games and we appear incapable of remaining solid at the back which makes you question what the coaches and players are doing.
It’s not being negative but observing the realities on the pitch.
I am sure PIF who want us to be number one must be taking note.
Joseph(Quote)
We played far too open for me. They struggle with low blocks & yet we came out to play toe to toe with them – away at Anfield.
One thing I’d say about a Howe team over the last 4 years is it’s usually very good defensively – but not at the moment teams are finding it easy to score against us.
I think we desperately need to improve the depth of our defence (including GK) – and I think we massively missed our Brazilian boys last night.
I don’t see silverware this season & I reckon it could be a 9th or 10th finish – which will look worse on paper than it’s been imo, but is a stark reminder we still don’t have a squad depth to compete on all fronts.
Sharpy17(Quote)
There is no divine right to be in the top 4 or even top 6, I think some of our fans are starting to get that awful entitlement syndrome . The fact is much more money is available to the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, City, Man u and Pool and even Spurs to a point.
Their revenues far exceeds ours at present and so they can blow us and teams around us away re wages and fees. If we blow millions on a couple of players and it doesn’t fly then we are up the proverbial, not so them, they can take the odd hit and replace with better and in the case of Chelsea sell what they consider a duff player on for profit !
Fans suggest Howe waste money on players, yet most of our buys have been good and lets not forget he wanted Pedro, Sesco and Ekitike who all chose to go to big clubs, that’s not his or the clubs fault. Players and agents are greedy for cash and trophy’s and right now we are not there in their eyes. The fact that a few of our players have bought into the clubs long term project is to their credit but if there is any blame to cast maybe the club could be clearer about the new training complex and stadium situation, that’s where our future wealth lies and pulling power for even better players .
kimtoon(Quote)
Sharpy17 :-
At last we have a realist👏👏
“At the moment teams find it easy to score against us”
“We play far to open”
It’s Howe’s job and the coaching staff to fix it and find a system that suits the players.
Away from home is not working because of the above!
Joseph(Quote)
Farage sounds eminently sensible as does the comment questioning Howe’s ability to change games with his influence and tactics .. you need spec savers if you can’t see that there is a problem
Mike(Quote)
You sound ridiculous nothing productive to say and whining about a politician who lives rent free in your head 😂 .. get a grip
Mike(Quote)
Reform voters, rapidly turning into maga, can’t see the wood for the trees. Turkeys voting for Christmas and all that.
Give your head a shake
kimtoon(Quote)
Four years ago January we were in the relegation zone (Yet again). This year January we are in the knockout stage of the champions league, both domestic cups, holder of one, and six points off top four. With calls for our manager to be sacked ( By some). To be replaced by a Mythical manager that no one can name and that Man U, Chelsea, and Spurs, have been searching for for some time now to take us to the next ‘level’ (That no one can explain to me what exactly this is?)
I would bet that any one of that three would snap up Eddie if he became available.
There is not just one thing that is the trouble, ( That can be cured with ‘Joseph’s magic formular’)
Starting with the loss of Izaks and its timing, then being out bid for our targets by rules designed to protect the Top Six. Our Dof leaving mid window. Having to settle for second best signings very late meaning little to no pre-season. With Wissa,s injury a lot longer. All contributing to a lack of goals and lots of missed chances. Our squad depth although better lacks quality. Add to this the number of games, lack of training time and injuries all contribute to what is in a lot of cases fine margin loses.
Joseph your on going gripe about Eddie,s game plans and team set ups etc was talked about on his pre-match presser.
nutmag(Quote)
Farage brought about Brexit as Europe is a big competitor to Trump who has financed Farage in lots of ways and still does. Be careful what you ‘wish/vote for!!
nutmag(Quote)
Everything is Eddie’s fault especially the fact we never win at Anfield, wah wah wah. Honestly the whining of some fans.
The same ones say he never changed it and we’ll never see wissa and woltermade at the same time, we have, we did yesterday, it wasn’t good enough . The what might have been if we’d only had Ekitike instead of wissa.
A decent first half performance and it’s the hope that kills you because if have loved to beat them lot. Nevermind, put some kids out against the mancs and let’s hopefully get back on track in the league with Bruno back
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie and Nutmag
Spot on on both counts.
kimtoon(Quote)
The amount of people on here who support Eddie Howe more than Newcastle United speaks volumes!
Andy(Quote)
Andy if there was manager better than Howe available I would say hire him. I think Howe might be in line for the England job after the world cup. I wouldn’t mind Rafa Benitez or Jose Mourinho. You just got to look at West ham United to know it’s not always the managers fault.
Terry(Quote)
Let’s not forget too, that our top target for right wing was Mbeumo, who decided he was following the money and went to Manure. I’m struggling to think of who we’d get in place of Eddie Howe if he went. A manager that is A, available, and B, would be willing to come to us under the financial constraints we’ve had forced on us by the FA and septic 6.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Exactly, but I do think there could be something in the Eddie to England rumours and maybe the club have an agreement with the FA and they are keeping cash back for summer and who ever comes in.
kimtoon(Quote)
I see Lascelles is away to Leicester after 12 years at the club. Good move for him and I wish him all the luck and thanks for his service, was a good captain and always gave 100%.
kimtoon(Quote)
Why would Arsenal make such a late inquiry for Sandro?
They wouldn’t but their mate at sky will lay the groundwork for the summer bid by unsettling him now just like they did with Isak for Pool.
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim – exactly, and as they did with Isak to Arsenal all of last season too.
Newkie(Quote)
Liverpool set to spend another £60m on a defender. Called Jacquet … spend, spend, f’king spend these septic 6 …
Gilly Toon(Quote)
No one in then. I really hope that doesn’t come back to bite us. We are so light in defence I think it will. I very much doubt we will get back into the CL for next season either. 🤷🏻♂️
Gilly Toon(Quote)
It’s so poor really, we needed some kind of lift, everyone else around us has strengthened and we’ve done nothing. Even recalling Targett would have been something, Trips has been so poor and we are really light at full back! We must have more money to spend ffs.
Newkie(Quote)
Knew we wouldn’t bring anyone in, I didn’t even watch sky sports DD as I was that sure.
Don’t quite understand what’s up with the club, no loans, even when we are beset with injuries, are we really that skint or is something more a foot.
kimtoon(Quote)
Eddie has said all along,”We would not sign anyone unless someone became available that was an improvement on what we have”. Lets hope the summer window goes better than the last two!
nutmag(Quote)
Indeed
kimtoon(Quote)
Gilly – you’re dead right with Mbeumo but he wasn’t an isolated example. Pretty much every player we went after in the summer went to a rival club who could pay twice the wages we could – Pedro, Delap, Sesko, Ekitike – we know it was Isaks motivation as well.
PSR can be a leveller to some degree, but until there is a wage cap in football there will never be total parity.
We have to be smarter.
Instead of competing for the players the top 6 have on their radar, we need to be picking off the players the likes of Bmth, Brighton, Palace are picking up for peanuts and turning huge profits on.
While we are missing out on our top targets they are scouting and signing real quality players.
The issue isn’t Howe, the issue is we have gone through that many directors of football, we still don’t have a sensible recruitment strategy
Sharpy17(Quote)
You are absolutely right Sharpy. Bournemouth, Brighton, even the Mackems, seem to find relatively unknown players that perform really well. Rayan, the young Brazilian we were linked with and went to Bournemouth for £30m got an assist on his first game. Brobbey to name but one for the Mackems has been outstanding, as well as many others.
I thought we may get a few youngsters in like these but we’ve not even done that in Jan. 🤷🏻♂️
Well, no chance now until summer, so we will see what happens.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Sharpy, Gilly – exactly right. Even with the move away from PSR the new system is still based around income generated and that includes player sales. Eddie has shown he can improve players but it is a total waste of time, not to mention he may not even be any good at it, for him to be getting bogged down in heavy scouting or club/player negotiations which seemed to be the case in the summer.
Let’s be honest we ended up with two strikers who probably snuck into our top 10 target list at best, the idiocy/arrogance of the club assuming we’d be able to force Isak to stay and crack on with it also shows a real lack of understanding of how the game works imo.
Newkie(Quote)
Gilly – look at how much time we wasted on Trafford & Sunderland go find Roefs from nowhere 🤯.
We need to get back to what Howe is good at – he coached a squad of relegation contenders to CL & cup winners (well some anyway).
But a lot of players got better under his guidance. Go buy the Adam Whartons, the Dean Huijsens (probably spelled wrong) and let Howe develop them – I’d be fine with that.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Aye, Roefs has been one of the best goalies in the league! Unbelievable
Gilly Toon(Quote)