Liverpool Draw at St James' Park: Key Takeaways from the Match
The last time Liverpool came to St James’ Park in August, the away end dissolved into chaos when Rio Ngumoha smashed in a 100th-minute winner. This time, the clock ticked deep into added time again. Dominik Szoboszlai buried a 99th-minute penalty. The noise was there, the drama was there – but the emotion was different. This was relief, not euphoria.
Andoni Iraola walked away with a 2-2 draw and a point that felt hard-earned rather than stolen. His Liverpool side trailed twice, looked ragged in key areas, yet refused to fold on an opening weekend where defeat would have brought a first day-one loss since 2012-13.
“It’s probably not the result you want when you come in before the game but we definitely deserve this point and even more,” Iraola 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.”
The taste is better. The questions are not.
A point gained, problems exposed
On the surface, Iraola can be satisfied. A raucous St James’ Park, a Newcastle side twice in front, and still Liverpool found a way to claw something out of the game. The fight was there. The fitness looked good. The bench, when it was used, changed the tempo.
But the performance also shone a harsh light on a squad that still feels thin and strangely incomplete.
“You’re expecting Liverpool to get top four this season at least but they didn’t look like a top four team today,” former Scotland winger Pat Nevin told 5 Live. “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.”
That was the crux. This Liverpool project is supposed to be built around big-ticket talents like Wirtz and Isak. On Tyneside, neither grabbed the game in the way their transfer fees demand.
Wirtz, Isak and a hostile return
All eyes were on them. Wirtz, the creative hub imported to light up Iraola’s system. Isak, the £100m-plus striker prised away from Newcastle in a long, bitter saga last September, now walking back into the stadium that once adored him.
The reception was brutal. Isak was booed relentlessly every time he touched the ball. He looked up for the fight, buzzing around, demanding passes, taking 28 touches. But when the key moment came in the second half, he fluffed a brilliant chance – the sort he routinely buried in black and white.
Wirtz started brightly, drifting into pockets, trying to knit moves together. Then Newcastle went 2-1 up and his influence faded. Just after the hour, he was gone, substituted as Iraola chased a way back into the game.
Both arrived for nine-figure fees last summer. Both know this level of output is nowhere near enough. Their connection, their end product, has to sharpen quickly. Right now, Liverpool’s attack feels more like a collection of expensive pieces than a functioning unit.
The Gakpo question
Amid the uncertainty, Cody Gakpo offered clarity. He was Liverpool’s standout performer, took his goal superbly and looked the most coherent threat in red.
Yet his future is the one wrapped in doubt.
The “Gakpo conundrum” now rolls into the final week of the window. If Liverpool land the two extra attacking players they want, the Dutchman may be the one to make way. The club have been linked with Paris St-Germain’s Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye and have already seen two bids knocked back for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh.
On this evidence, moving Gakpo on would be a ruthless call. But Iraola’s rebuild is not finished, and the market rarely cares about sentiment.
Ngumoha’s struggle, Munoz’s spark
Last August, Ngumoha walked off this pitch as the teenage hero. This time, his night told a different story.
Used on the right, where he has never truly looked at home after coming through the ranks preferring the left, he struggled to impose himself. The game passed him by, the duels went against him, and after just over an hour Iraola made the call. Off came the English teenager. On came Victor Munoz for his Liverpool debut.
The contrast was immediate. Munoz brought energy and direct running. He drove at defenders, forced Newcastle back and, in the dying seconds, won the penalty that Szoboszlai slammed in.
Ngumoha turns 18 next week and has time on his side, but this was a reminder that development is rarely linear. Iraola wants wingers who can operate on both flanks. Whether this particular experiment survives once new attackers arrive is another matter.
What is not in doubt is the need for more options. Once Munoz and Alexis Mac Allister entered on 63 minutes, Iraola looked down his bench and saw only Giorgi Mamardashvili, Ronald Araujo, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas, Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Lewis Koumas left. It’s a list that screams honest professionals and promising kids, not depth for a title push.
Open at the back, exposed in transition
If the attack looked disjointed, the defence looked alarmingly open.
Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong both endured rough outings at full-back. Liverpool were sliced apart on the counter for both Newcastle goals, with vast green spaces opening up behind the press and no one screening the back line.
The absence of a true defensive midfielder loomed large. When Joe Willock put Newcastle 2-1 up, Iraola’s response was telling: Mac Allister dropped in just ahead of the back four, a technical fix for a structural problem.
The numbers are damning. Since the start of last season, Liverpool have conceded more goals from fast breaks in all competitions than any other Premier League side – nine in total. That is not bad luck. That is a pattern.
For a coach who builds on intensity and front-foot aggression, Iraola will know he cannot keep sending this team out without a proper shield in front of his defence.
Iraola’s verdict and the road ahead
Iraola prefers to debrief the day after a match, once the adrenaline has drained away. Even so, he had seen enough in the heat of the moment to draw some early conclusions.
“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 relentlessness when he spoke to Sky Sports. “We will never give up. I can guarantee you that. 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.”
Desire has never been in short supply on Tyneside. The noise, the intensity, the refusal to lie down – all of that was there again.
What Liverpool lack, starkly, is numbers and nuance. A deeper bench. A genuine holding midfielder. A settled role for Gakpo. A Wirtz-Isak axis that actually clicks.
The late penalty saved them this time. The question now is whether this squad, as it stands, can save Iraola from a season spent chasing rather than leading.
