Newcastle United 2 Liverpool 3.
This was always going to be a physical assault and a big test of Liverpool’s credentials as Champions. Newcastle are a team equipped to play two ways. The primary style at St James Park is to bully, press and harry teams into mistakes. They want to intimidate and dominate.
They can also sit deep and counter with lightning fast pace – a tactic more suited to road games, but also effective when they need to restore some energy in frantic games such as this one. Liverpool are not a team to be intimidated and were happy to go toe to toe with the EPL’s latest version of ‘Dirty Leeds’ – ‘Nasty Newcastle’?
The first 20 minutes to half an hour was always going to be a waiting game with Newcastle eventually blowing themselves out around the 30 minute mark. Having survived the onslaught it was nice to stick two fingers in their faces with a well struck, if slightly fortunate, drive into the bottom corner from Ryan Gravenberch.
Anthony Gordon produced a moment of madness to quite rightly get sent off prior to half time as he appeared to want to take Virgil’s sock home as a souvenir. Dreadful challenge and the 3 game ban he’ll get could be argued as lenient. When Hugo Ekitike made it 2-0 before Arne Slot had even made it out of the dressing room at the start of the second half, to all intents and purposes it looked like game over.
Perhaps Liverpool became complacent, it’s certainly not the first time the foot has come off the pedal with a two goal lead. Or maybe, this was a case of Newcastle raising their game and doubling down on their aggressive tactics. Guimaraes bundled in a header at the back post before forgotten striker Will Osula deftly flicked in an equaliser in a goal that the Crazy Gang of Wimbledon would’ve been proud of. With the roof coming off the building Newcastle went for the jugular and fired the ball in from several long throws and corners as they smelt blood and redemption.
On 95 minutes Slot allowed Elliott and Ngumoha to enter the fray. Then finally on 100 minutes, Liverpool strung half a dozen passes together culminating in Salah sliding the ball across the box, Szoboszlai dummied beautifully, leaving Rio Ngumoha with the freedom of St James Park at the back post. The rest as they say, is history.
For the most part this was an old fashioned European style away game, a game where you had to suffer for long periods and earn or wait for the opportunity to play some football. For the most part it was a thoroughly professional performance. Ruthless efficiency in front of goal and stout defending against relentless pressure. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was a fascinating match that had fans around the world on the edge of their seats. A dogged performance where Liverpool refused to lose.
Points of note:
In his pre match interview, Slot said that his full backs would not both be attacking at the same time, as they did against Bournemouth. Kerkez barely left his half the whole game and Liverpool did not give anything away in open play. Lesson learned.
In his post match interview, Slot was asked why on the second goal did Virgil line up his defence so high up, when they had defended deep all game allowing them to attack the ball. Slot quickly defended his Captain and took responsibility for what proved to be a (rare) poor decision from the tactically adept Dutchman.
Karma’s not just for chameleons. Newcastle wanted to bully Liverpool and pushed the laws of the game to the edge and beyond (at times) to see if the reds had the fortitude to withstand it. For their sins, they now have Gordon with a 3 game ban, Joelinton and Tonali likely to miss at least the next game and Schar in concussion protocol.
Meanwhile Liverpool escaped largely unscathed, Van Dijk’s calf and sock may wish to disagree with me on that. You don’t know, what you don’t know. Sums up Rio Ngumoha right now, ice in his veins as he coolly slotted home the winner. Although it has to be noted that Newcastle’s defenders were nowhere near him, what can only be described as a dereliction of duties with barely any time remaining.
When asked after the game, he said it was a finish he has made 100s of times in training, the only difference was the crowd watching. The kid has the world at his feet and appears to have an old head on young shoulders. Enjoy your birthday on Friday, Rio.
I’m not going to pretend that this was a faultless performance but an away win at St James Park demands a performance of character, few places will be this hostile, this season. The result augurs well, for tonight, ‘A star was born’.
#FreeTheNewcastleNine.