Newcastle 1-2 Liverpool: Devastating defeat as Toon lose it late against 10 men
A devastating afternoon at St James' Park, as Newcastle United conceded two late goals to lose against a 10-man Liverpool.
We took the lead in the first half through Anthony Gordon and gained a man advantage soon after, as Virgil Van Dijk's foul on Alexander Isak saw the Reds go down to 10 men.
However, despite our dominance and control of possession, we lost our way and let Liverpool back into a game that could and should have been out of sight. Jurgen Klopp's subs worked a treat and Eddie Howe's backfired horribly.
Joelinton was struggling after going down off the ball, so that change may have been enforced, but it was baffling to see Gordon and Tonali - two of our top performers on the day - replaced by Harvey Barnes and Sean Longstaff. It felt like premeditated subs to bring on 'fresh legs' and contributed to our loss of momentum.
Even so, it shouldn't have come to this. Almiron blazed over at the back post in the opening stages of the second half, Gordon fired a decent effort wide after running rings around Alexander-Arnold all game. Miggy hit the post at the end of a brilliant run, Botman glanced wide, Longstaff had a low effort hit straight at Alisson and Wilson also fired a late effort way over.
Whether it was chances missed, poor subs our sloppiness creeping in just when we needed to keep our heads and see the game out, our game management wasn't good enough. After a rare lapse from Botman, Darwin Nunez fired in from the angle 10 minutes from time, then the Uruguayan made sure of the unthinkable in stoppage time. Bruno lost the ball in a bad area, Salah set up the South American and he slid past Pope once again.
50,000 Mags inside St James' Park sunk into their seats and tried to wrap their heads around what we'd just witnessed. To make matters even worse, Sven Botman went down awkwardly and was forced off with what looks like a potentially nasty injury, rubbing salt into our wounds at the end of a damaging day on Tyneside.
As for the positives, which feel incredibly tough to muster right now, I thought Gordon was brilliant all afternoon. He took his goal well, gave Alexander-Arnold the run around and shouldn't have come off. Joelinton was everywhere, snapping into tackles and putting our fires, while Sandro Tonali showed his class both on and off the ball again. Botman was also a man mountain at the back before Nunez's late brace, but that in itself is a worry if he's now facing a spell on the sidelines.
I thought our 2-1 defeat at Anfield hurt, but this was worse again, as poor finishing, the wrong subs, some bad luck and two great finishes from Nunez have proved costly. Let's hope Eddie Howe learns his lesson and the lads can bounce back. This one stings, but we'll be back.
Next up, we face a trip to Brighton next Saturday night, where the players must pick themselves off the canvas and go again after back-to-back defeats.
STARTING 11: Pope – Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn – Tonali, Bruno, Joelinton – Almiron, Isak, Gordon.
