Liverpool Salvages Draw Against Newcastle with Late Penalty
At St James’ Park last August, Liverpool walked out with bedlam ringing in their ears and Rio Ngumoha’s 100th-minute winner etched into memory. Same fixture, same late drama this time – but the mood could not have been more different.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s 99th-minute penalty salvaged a 2-2 draw, yet instead of wild celebration there was a long, collective exhale. Relief, not rapture.
Andoni Iraola was adamant his team did not deserve to lose. On the balance of the fight, he had a point. Liverpool twice trailed in a ferocious atmosphere and twice clawed their way back. A first opening-weekend defeat since 2012-13 was avoided. The unbeaten record survived. The doubts did too.
"It's probably not the result you want when you come in before the game but we definitely deserve this point and even more," Iraola 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."
That last line told the story. Liverpool left with something to cling to. But the performance, especially for a club expected to muscle into the top four, left a lot to chew over on the flight back to Merseyside.
Big names, small output
The Premier League spotlight fell squarely on Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak. The pair arrived last summer for nine-figure fees, their names tied to expectation and, in Isak’s case, emotion.
Signed from Newcastle after a drawn-out saga, the Sweden striker was greeted with boos every time he touched the ball. He looked up for the fight, racking up 28 touches and snapping into his work, but when the big chance came in the second half, he fluffed it – the sort of opportunity he buried routinely in black and white.
Wirtz started brightly between the lines, trying to knit play together, then faded. By the time Newcastle led 2-1, he was off, replaced just after the hour. For two players meant to define Liverpool’s new era, the connection simply wasn’t there.
"You're expecting Liverpool to get top four this season at least but they didn't look like a top four team today," former Scotland winger Pat Nevin said on 5 Live. "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."
He wasn’t wrong. This Liverpool side still throws up more questions than answers.
The Gakpo question
One of the biggest revolves around Cody Gakpo. His future hangs over the final week of the transfer window.
If Liverpool land two more attacking players, Gakpo may be the one to make way. 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.
Yet on the pitch at St James’ Park, Gakpo was Liverpool’s standout performer. He took his goal superbly, carried a threat, and looked like the one forward fully in tune with the tempo of the game. On this evidence, any decision to move him on will sting.
There was at least another encouraging sign in attack. Spanish forward Victor Munoz, on debut, came off the bench and immediately changed the tone. Direct, sharp, eager to run at defenders, he won the stoppage-time penalty that Szoboszlai buried.
His introduction, though, came at the expense of Ngumoha – the teenager who had been the hero here a year ago. This time he lasted just over an hour and never got going.
Deployed on the right, the 17-year-old struggled to influence the game. He has grown up preferring the left, cutting inside onto his stronger foot, and it showed. Iraola wants his wingers to be comfortable on both flanks, but on this evidence that particular experiment may not be a long-term plan once reinforcements arrive.
Thin bench, exposed back line
The deeper Iraola went into his bench, the clearer the squad’s limitations became.
Once Munoz and Alexis Mac Allister entered on 63 minutes, these were the remaining outfield options: Ronald Araujo, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas, Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Lewis Koumas, with Giorgi Mamardashvili as reserve goalkeeper. It is not a bench that screams title challenge or even top-four comfort. Iraola knows he needs more.
Out on the pitch, the defensive issues were just as stark. Full-backs Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong both endured difficult afternoons, repeatedly caught out as Newcastle sprang forward. Liverpool were sliced open on the counter for both goals they conceded.
The absence of a true defensive midfielder loomed large. When Joe Willock put Newcastle 2-1 up, Iraola’s response was telling: Mac Allister dropped in just ahead of the back four, a fire-fighting role he has never fully looked at home in. It was a tactical patch, not a long-term solution.
The numbers underline the problem. Since the start of last season, Liverpool have conceded more goals from fast breaks in all competitions than any other Premier League side – nine in total. That’s not an anomaly. That’s a pattern.
Energy, resolve – and a long to-do list
For a new manager, the temptation after a chaotic opener is to tear into his players. Iraola prefers to wait until the following day for a full debrief, to let the emotion drain away.
"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 when he spoke to 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, then, is not in question. The fight is there. The late equaliser, the way the substitutes drove Liverpool up the pitch, the refusal to fold in a hostile stadium – all of that will please Iraola.
But spirit alone will not drag this team where the club expects to be. The squad is too light, the midfield balance still off, the defensive structure too easy to rip apart in transition. Iraola has his point on the board. What he needs now, urgently, are more players on his teamsheet.
