Liverpool's Flaws Exposed Again in Newcastle Clash
Pat Nevin did not need many words on BBC Radio 5 Live to cut to the heart of it: Liverpool’s old flaws are still staring them in the face. At St James’ Park, they weren’t just exposed. They were invited out into the open.
Andoni Iraola’s decision to push Florian Wirtz into a central role ahead of a flimsy double pivot of Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai only magnified the problem. Everyone in the ground knew that midfield could be played through. Newcastle, stripped of their most dangerous forward and their two best midfielders over the summer, still sliced through it with embarrassing ease.
The warning signs flashed after five minutes. Gravenberch and Szoboszlai, both naturally front-foot players, had surged into the Newcastle box. When the attack broke down, Liverpool were naked on the counter. One pass, one burst, and Anthony Elanga was racing clear to score. It was a familiar sight: a simple breakaway, a red defence scrambling in vain, the kind of goal Liverpool conceded again and again last season.
Nothing about this suggested the lesson had been learned.
Even when Cody Gakpo dragged Liverpool level, the respite barely lasted long enough for the away end to finish celebrating. Just 176 seconds later, Joe Willock punished more slack positioning and casual defending to restore Newcastle’s lead. Another cheap concession. Another snapshot of a side that still cannot control the middle of the pitch or protect its back four.
Iraola knew he had to act. Chasing the game for a second time, he turned to his bench and made a bold double change: Alexis Mac Allister on, Victor Munoz on, Wirtz and Ngumoha sacrificed.
Munoz immediately brought a different edge. Direct, aggressive, unafraid to run at defenders, he forced the penalty that allowed Szoboszlai to haul Liverpool level again. That was the positive Szoboszlai later clung to: twice behind, twice they found a way back.
But the human side of the night was harsher elsewhere. Ngumoha had been given the impossible job of stepping into Mohamed Salah’s role on the right, despite being more comfortable on the left. He toiled, he tried, and then he was hooked. A thankless assignment, and he looked like a kid thrown into the wrong play at the wrong time.
Wirtz, though, will not get the same understanding from the stands.
Liverpool fans have been patient with the £100 million Germany international. Very patient. Jamie Carragher, writing in the Daily Telegraph before the season kicked off, had already laid down the challenge: show you’re more than “neat and tidy” on the ball. Show you can grab a game, bend it to your will.
This was not that performance.
Yes, Wirtz managed one of Liverpool’s rare first-half efforts on target. But the broader picture is damning. On the left wing he has often looked lost. In the central role many consider his best, he still drifted, still failed to stamp any authority on a match he was supposed to illuminate when he arrived at Anfield to such noise last summer. A year on, the same questions hang in the air: where does he fit? What is he changing?
Across the pitch, Alexander Isak offered a painful mirror image. Back at Newcastle, facing his former club, this should have been a night loaded with narrative. Instead, it was a non-event. Service to him was limited, but when the chance finally came, he snatched at it. Midway through the second half, the ball fell kindly in the area. Isak leaned back and launched it over the bar, prompting roars of laughter from the home fans.
For Liverpool, nobody is laughing. Isak’s anonymity, paired with Wirtz’s ongoing struggle, underlines a brutal reality: this squad has issues everywhere. Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong both endured rough nights on Tyneside, adding to the sense of a team still searching for balance and identity.
This is why the transfer window looms so large. Liverpool’s hierarchy sanctioned two enormous deals for Wirtz and Isak, believing they were investing in Champions League game-changers. Players to drag them back to the top, to turn tight nights into statement wins. Instead, a year on, both are labouring against an ordinary Premier League side.
The season is young. Iraola’s tenure has barely begun. Turning around a squad that limped to fifth and finished empty-handed in 2025-26 was never going to be an overnight job, and Szoboszlai is right to cling to the resilience shown in twice clawing back a deficit.
But there is no escaping the mood. This was another sobering evening for Wirtz and Isak, two marquee signings bought to close Liverpool’s wounds. Right now, they look like part of the problem. How long can a club of Liverpool’s ambitions afford to wait for £100 million answers to start answering?
