The rain fell incessantly over Anfield as Liverpool and Newcastle staged a madcap contest that ended with Eddie Howe staring at January being the cruellest month for his job prospects.
This was a 4-2 shellacking from Jürgen Klopp’s side that might have been 8-2. It was dire for Howe as it stretches Newcastle’s run to only one win in eight games. Put another way: the football project of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has lost seven of the past eight and their next three scheduled outings before February arrives appear as treacherous as this trip to Anfield.
On Saturday it is the half-hour drive to Sunderland in the FA Cup third round ahead of league fixtures against Manchester City (home) and Aston Villa (away). Being knocked out of the last competition Newcastle can claim this season by their fiercest rivals at their ground would cause alarm in the plush offices of Howe’s paymasters.
Go down or draw when the champions are in town (13 January) and at Villa (30 January), who are three points behind Liverpool after this victory, and Howe would be staring at one win in 11 matches.
This is not the form of an upwardly mobile team owned by a nation state whose wish is to burnish their global reputation by transforming Newcastle into a continental heavyweight. At the break Howe and his men could still dream of beginning 2024 with the right result, but this was only because Liverpool produced a curate’s egg of a first half.
The good part was their close to total dominance. The poor part was how they failed to end it three or four ahead. The statistic that crystallised this was the 18 shots of Klopp’s side with no goals: their most in eight years in an opening 45 minutes without scoring.
A barnstorming period featured goals ruled offside for Luis Díaz and Dan Burn, Mohamed Salah’s saved penalty, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s hashed follow-up, the latter’s later blaze against Martin Dubravka’s bar from close to the touchline, and three more vital stops from the Newcastle’s 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 triumph that April. This was two years before Kevin Keegan’s infamous “I will love it” rant in 1995-96, the last season Newcastle were serious contenders. The hope was this 28-year gap might be bridged this term: those in the barcode shirts might not add a fifth league crown to the club honours board but they would mount a credible challenge that would take them into the final weeks of the race.
But no. On the table now, for the moment anyway, is the question of Howe and how long he may have as the Newcastle No 1. Like Erik ten Hag, he overachieved last season, placing Newcastle fourth and reaching the Carabao Cup final but unlike Manchester United’s manager Howe does not have the ballast of a trophy on his CV, his men losing to the Dutchman’s in the Wembley showpiece before finishing a berth one place and four points poorer in the Premier League.
Coming into this game Howe’s mood music had been odd. If a trip to Liverpool’s feverish venue is no one’s idea of a canter in the park, why remind his players of this by saying they would have to be at their best to prosper here? He was hinting this was because of those missing but as the world’s richest club there is not, surely, copious sympathy out there for an injury list added to by Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson being unable to travel.
This put those unavailable into double figures but Howe could still send out an XI that featured Alexander Isak as a striker (in Wilson’s position, he equalised) and the impressive Tino Livramento at right-back (Trippier’s).
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After only four minutes the pass count 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 artistry of Alexander-Arnold and Salah.
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Except: 22 minutes in, the latter saw his penalty saved and the former, at point-blank distance, shinned the follow-up. The effervescent Díaz claimed the spot-kick, moments after he had a goal disallowed (by VAR) for Núñez’s offside.
Liverpool were in aristocratic mode, cuffing their visitor about in the manner of a club with 19 titles to their visitors four, the last of which came in 1927. Salah, who changed his boots at the break, was performing for the last time before joining up with Egypt for their Africa Cup of Nations campaign: with his new footwear he opened the scoring on 49 minutes and erased the previous spot-kick miss by scoring his second goal of the contest near the end.
These bookended Isak’s goal, Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo putting Liverpool 3-1 up and Sven Botman scoring Newcastle’s second. At the close Salah had 151 Premier League goals and a rain-drenched Howe said: “I can see light at the end of the tunnel if my players continue to give me their all.”
They need, though, to provide wins – and quick.
