Liverpool's Late Drama at St James' Park: A Draw with Doubts
At St James’ Park last August, Liverpool walked out with bedlam ringing in their ears, Rio Ngumoha the teenage hero after a 100th-minute winner. Same stadium, same late drama this time – but a very different mood.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s 99th-minute penalty salvaged a 2-2 draw, a roar of relief replacing last season’s wild celebration. A first opening‑weekend defeat since 2012-13 was seconds away. The point steadies the mood. It doesn’t quiet the doubts.
Iraola’s Liverpool show spirit – and their flaws
Andoni Iraola emerged sounding satisfied but not seduced.
"It's probably not the result you want when you come in before the game but we definitely deserve this point and even more," he 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."
He had a right to cling to that late surge. His side trailed twice in a ferocious St James’ Park, yet refused to fold. The fight was there. So were the fault lines.
On the flight back to Merseyside, Iraola will have replayed the game in his head and seen the same thing over and over again: a squad stretched thin and a structure still searching for balance.
Former Scotland winger Pat Nevin did not dress it up on 5 Live.
"You're expecting Liverpool to get top four this season at least but they didn't look like a top four team today," he said. "There are more players to come in, so you can't make a real decision on how their season is going to go.
"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."
Wirtz and Isak under the spotlight
All the pre-match noise centred on Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak. It never really translated into performance.
Isak, back at his former home after a drawn-out move from Newcastle last September, was booed relentlessly with every touch. He looked up for the fight, racking up 28 touches, chasing, snarling. Then came the moment he used to bury in this stadium: a gilt‑edged second-half chance, spurned.
Wirtz started brightly, demanding the ball, trying to knit attacks together. Once Newcastle went 2-1 up, his influence faded. He was withdrawn just after the hour, another big-name signing unable to tilt a big game.
Both arrived last summer for nine-figure fees. Both know this output will not do. Their understanding, their end product, their sheer presence in games like this has to grow – and quickly.
For now, Liverpool remain a team throwing up more questions than answers.
The Gakpo question and a thin bench
One of the biggest questions hangs over Cody Gakpo and the final days of the transfer window.
If, as expected, Liverpool bring in two more attacking players, Gakpo may be the one to make way. Paris St-Germain’s Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye have been linked. Two bids have already been knocked back for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh.
The irony? Gakpo was Liverpool’s best player here. Sharp, direct, clinical with his finish. While others drifted in and out, he imposed himself.
There was another bright spark in Spanish forward Victor Munoz, who came off the bench for his Liverpool debut and won the late penalty. He replaced Ngumoha, whose afternoon summed up the growing pains of a young winger asked to adapt on the fly.
Ngumoha, who turns 18 next week, has grown up playing off the left. Iraola stationed him on the right. He never quite found his rhythm, rarely troubling Newcastle before being hooked just after the hour.
Iraola wants wingers who can switch flanks seamlessly. Whether that experiment with Ngumoha continues once reinforcements arrive is another matter.
What is not in doubt is the need for those reinforcements. After Munoz and Alexis Mac Allister came on in the 63rd minute, Iraola’s remaining outfield options were limited: Ronald Araujo, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas, Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Lewis Koumas, with Giorgi Mamardashvili as the reserve goalkeeper.
For a club with top-four ambitions, that bench told its own story.
Exposed on the break, exposed in midfield
At the back, Liverpool creaked. Both full-backs, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, endured difficult afternoons. Newcastle repeatedly found joy on the counter, slicing through space that should have been guarded.
Both goals came from Liverpool being undone in transition. The absence of a natural defensive midfielder screamed out. When Joe Willock put Newcastle 2-1 up, Iraola’s response was telling: Mac Allister dropped in just ahead of the back four to try to plug the gap.
The numbers back up the concern. Since the start of last season, no Premier League side has conceded more goals from fast breaks in all competitions than Liverpool’s nine. For a team that wants to play on the front foot, that statistic is a warning light.
And yet, amid the chaos, Iraola still saw enough to cling to.
"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 on 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."
The attitude is not in question. It rarely is on Tyneside. The bigger issue is whether this Liverpool squad, as currently built, has the quality and depth to turn late rescues into routine wins over the long haul of a Premier League season.
