by Rain fell relentlessly at Anfield as Liverpool and Newcastle played out a madcap contest that ended with Eddie Howe staring down the toughest month for his job prospects in January.
This was a 4-2 slot from Jürgen Klopp’s side which could have been 8-2. It was awful for Howe as he extended Newcastle’s run to one win in eight games. Put another way: the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund football project have lost seven of their last eight and their next three scheduled trips before February look to be as treacherous as this trip to Anfield.
Related: Mohamed Salah ends it with a double in Liverpool’s frantic win over Newcastle
On Saturday it will be the half hour drive to Sunderland in the third round of the FA Cup before the league games against Manchester City (home) and Aston Villa (away). A scrapping of the last competition Newcastle can claim this season by their fiercest rivals on the ground would send a scare into Howe’s paymasters’ offices.
Go down or draw when the champions are at home (January 13) and at Villa (January 30), who are three points behind Liverpool after this win, and Howe would be staring at just one win in 11 games.
This is not the form of a highly mobile, upwardly mobile nation-state-owned team that wants to cement its global reputation by turning Newcastle into a continental heavyweight. At the break Howe and his men could still be dreaming of starting 2024 with the right result, but this was only because Liverpool produced a keepers egg in the first half.
It was the good part that was close to total dominance. The poor part was that they failed to finish it three or four ahead. The statistic that crystallized this was Klopp’s side’s 18 shots without goals: the most in eight years in a scoreless opening 45 minutes.
During the penalty period there were back-to-backs for Luis Díaz and Dan Burn, a penalty saved by Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s hashed follow-up, a later flick against Martin Dubravka’s bar close to the touchline, and three more crucial stops from Newcastle . deputy goalkeeper – from Díaz and Darwin Núñez (twice).
Newcastle have not won here since 1994 when Andy Cole and Rob Lee struck in a 2-0 win in April. This was two years before Kevin Keegan’s “I will love it” rant in 1995-96, the last season Newcastle were serious contenders. It was hoped that the 28-year gap could be bridged this term: the barcode shirts might not put a fifth league crown on the clubs honors table but they would mount a credible challenge that would take them into the final weeks of the race.
But no. On the table now, however, is the question of Howe and how long he will be Newcastle’s No. manager Howe has no trophy ballast on his CV, his men losing to the Dutch in the Wembley final before finishing one place and four points lower in the Premier League.
Coming into this game Howe’s mood music was strange. If no one is thinking of a trip to the fever center of Liverpool for camo on the pitch, why does this remind his players that they need to be at their best to be successful here? He was saying this was because of those who were missing but as the richest club in the world there is surely not a lot of sympathy out there for an injury list that Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson have added to not being able to travel.
This put the unavailable ones in double figures but Howe could still field an XI that featured Alexander Isak as a striker (in Wilson’s position, he equalized) and the impressive Tino Livramento at right-back (Trippier’s).
After four minutes the number of passes was 28-2 to Liverpool and close to seven were needed before Newcastle had the ball in Liverpool territory. Klopp’s team were a red swarm in and out of possession decorated by the art of Alexander-Arnold and Salah.
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Except: 22 minutes in, the second saw his penalty saved and the first, at point-blank range, shinned the follow-up. The eternal Díaz claimed the spot kick, a minute after having a goal disallowed (by VAR) for Núñez’s offside.
Liverpool were in elite mode, turning their visitors around in the manner of a club with 19 titles in their foursomes, the last of which came in 1927. Salah, who had changed his boots at half-time, was performing for the last time before he entered. up with Egypt for their Africa Cup of Nations campaign: with his new footwear he opened the scoring on 49 minutes and overturned his previous spot-kick miss by scoring his second goal of the tournament near the end.
These booked Isak’s goal, Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo put Liverpool 3-1 up and Sven Botman scored Newcastle’s second. By the end Salah had 151 Premier League goals and a rain-soaked Howe said: “I can see a light at the end of the tunnel if the players continue to give me their all.”
They must, however, provide talent – and quickly.
