Milos Kerkez Faces Tough Test at St James’ Park
Milos Kerkez felt it from both sides at St James’ Park – from the touchline and from his own penalty area.
The new Liverpool left-back, promoted to first choice after Andy Robertson’s summer move to Tottenham Hotspur, endured a rough afternoon in the 2-2 draw with Newcastle. The Premier League stage is unforgiving. On Sunday, it showed him exactly how unforgiving.
Early blow, early warning
The tone was set inside the first five minutes. Anthony Elanga burst past Kerkez down Liverpool’s left and the Magpies punished the space for the opening goal. Beaten for pace, beaten for position, the 22-year-old was on the back foot almost immediately.
From there, he never truly looked settled. His forward bursts lacked conviction, his decision-making in the final third rarely sharp enough to trouble Newcastle. Liverpool Echo reporter Ian Doyle was among those to flag the performance as a concern.
Iraola loses patience, Van Dijk steps in
Doyle’s follow-up piece on Monday highlighted two flashpoints that summed up Kerkez’s afternoon.
On one occasion, with Elanga again the threat, Kerkez was slow to get out and close the winger down. Doyle described how Andoni Iraola “struggled to keep his emotions in check” as his left-back “took an eternity” to engage, eventually conceding a corner. The Basque coach let him know exactly what he thought, remonstrating furiously on the touchline and making no attempt to hide his anger.
Later, the criticism came from even closer quarters.
During a Newcastle break down Liverpool’s left, Kerkez again hesitated. Virgil van Dijk, reading the danger, sprinted across to shut it down himself. The captain’s intervention snuffed out the threat – but not the conversation. Van Dijk made it clear Kerkez had been too slow to step in, the rebuke as visible as it was audible.
At this level, those exchanges are part of the job. But two separate, public dressings-down in one game told their own story.
Numbers can’t hide the reality
Kerkez did not completely disappear. His underlying metrics offered some mitigation: six duels won, seven defensive contributions, three tackles, one shot on target and one key pass, according to Sofascore.
Those are not the figures of a player hiding from the contest.
Yet they also don’t erase the key moments that shaped the narrative of his day – the defensive lapses, the squandered attacking positions, the hesitations that forced others to clean up behind him. For a young defender now entrusted with a starting role at Liverpool, the standard is higher than “solid numbers”.
He will know that himself. He has to.
Next test: Nottingham Forest and a response
There is no time to dwell. Nottingham Forest visit Anfield next Saturday, and Iraola will expect a very different version of his left-back.
Kerkez is likely to face Ola Aina in Oliver Glasner’s wing-back system, a direct, athletic opponent who will test both his concentration and his recovery speed. It is exactly the kind of duel that can either deepen doubts or reset a reputation.
The Hungary international has won the shirt. Now comes the hard part: proving he can keep it when the pressure bites and the criticism is loudest.
