16 Conclusions on Newcastle 2-3 Liverpool: Ngumoha, Osula, Ekitike, Konate and Isak

Newcastle were as good as Liverpool were bad, but Anthony Gordon and Rio Ngumoha combined to deny us all some Alexander Isak justice…

1) 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha scoring the winner in the 100th minute is just about the only way we can think of that we would have felt any joy in Liverpool winning this game of football.

Ten-man Newcastle, who played about as well as it’s possible to in defeat, came so close to the most delicious of draws thanks to their only available striker, after their out-of-position stand-in was sent off in a febrile atmosphere brought about by Alexander Isak and his push to join the club they were playing against.

Liverpool were as bad as Newcastle were good, but start the defence of their title with two shaky wins from two thanks to an absurdly talented child, who we couldn’t help but be delighted for.

2) The build-up to this game could not have gone better for Sky Sports. In a slot usually reserved for a clash between lesser teams, at best one of the big boys, this was already a huge instalment of Monday Night Football.

Two Champions League sides clashing in the game of the weekend on a Monday is a big boon, and with a sun-soaked bank holiday offering ample opportunity to wet fan whistles before they drifted from beer gardens to the stadium, if you couldn’t be at St James’ Park it was essential viewing at home, perhaps even without the most intriguing subtext to a game we can remember to make it entirely unmissable.

Isak’s push to leave for Liverpool created the sort of hostility between the fans and players normally reserved for historic rivals. And we wonder if a straw poll of Newcastle fans outside would have seen a majority valuing victory over Liverpool – the Red Cartel behemoth who’s turned the head of their best player to such a degree that he’s refusing to play for them – instead of Sunderland on their return to the Premier League.

3) We have very little sympathy for Isak. These unwritten ‘broken promises’ he referred to in his Instagram post explaining his dereliction of duty in no way excuses the way in which he’s gone about things. Badly advised? Maybe. Is there an unreasonable imbalance of power between football players and football clubs with regard to contracts and the ability to break them? Yes. But does he have no sense of personal shame?

If we think about what Newcastle, Eddie Howe and his teammates have done to aid him in becoming this £150m striker, and the adoration of the fans which peaked in the form of his name adorning the stand in 200 ft high letters in November last year, it’s hard to comprehend how much of a d*ck you’ve got to be to turn your back on them entirely rather than than, say, handing in a transfer request while continuing to represent the club that pays your wages. Not doing that because of the financial implications does nothing to combat the suggestion that Isak’s little more than a spoilt brat.

Although Thierry Henry said Isak should be training, he attempted to play down the striker’s antics, referring to the inherently unfair ease with which football clubs can send players packing while Isak and others are disparaged for downing tools to force a move.

“People are upset because Isak is good,” Henry said. “When a player is playing bad and the club wants them out, I don’t see anyone crying for him.. When players don’t go to training you can’t put yourself in their shoes, we don’t know the whole story.”

It’s been suggested Isak and his representatives could threaten to invoke Article 17 – which essentially states that any player who signed a contract before the age of 28 can buy himself out of the contract three years after the deal was signed – but Isak would be required to prove a clear breach of contract, usually the refusal to pay wages, and would also likely be told that this FIFA rule and it’s recent amendments aren’t for him.

Yes, he’s trapped to an extent. But we can’t imagine a court of arbitration seeing a footballer previously adored by his club and its supporters, playing in the Champions League on £120,000 per week as some sort of hostage.

Again, in an era of bomb squads and players being banned from training, Isak will argue it’s grossly unfair, and we don’t necessarily disagree, but it’s his reality.

READ MORE: Carragher believes Newcastle ‘should sell’ Isak after ‘nightmare’ he endured at Liverpool

4) “We have got to concentrate on what we need to do and not get too emotional, but certainly use the energy from the crowd,” Eddie How said ahead of kick-off. “It’s going to be vital for us.”

If anything, Howe will have been looking to contain his players ahead of kick-off (and perhaps should have tried harder) but opposition manager Arne Slot not knowing where the game was set to take place may have been a useful pre-match motivational tidbit to share with them. 

“St James’ Park, isn’t it?” Slot asked reporters at his press conference. Our guess is he was well aware of exactly where he was as he and the Liverpool players got off the coach to boos and whistles from the gathered Newcastle fans.

It was telling after just two minutes that Virgil van Dijk stepped in after Joelinton’s high boot on Cody Gakpo, seemingly to calm the referee down as much as anyone, perhaps aware that an early yellow card for a Newcastle player wouldn’t necessarily work in Liverpool’s favour here, with levels of acclaim afforded to Newcastle players on the basis of just how hard they crunched their opponents in tackles by the Toon faithful.

READ MORE: Ngumoha and Gordon spoil it for Newcastle after Osula offered perfect Isak, Liverpool middle finger

5) It didn’t take long though for Van Dijk to bemoan the decisions of Simon Hooper, and we don’t particularly blame the captain for a “both sides?” question after two Newcastle players were fortunate to escape cautions before Cody Gakpo was shown a yellow for Liverpool’s first tackle of any note while several others saw fouls given against them as signposted of the baying crowd.

We’re not claiming bias or foul play, but also wouldn’t deny a referee accused of “lacking authority” in Manchester United’s defeat to Arsenal last weekend was being in part influenced by the crowd.

We don’t know whether that played a role in his need to view the pitch-side monitor to deem Anthony Gordon’s challenge on Van Dijk worthy of a red card, but we can imagine the noise created by Newcastle fans had it been Ekitike on Fabian Schar would have made it much harder to ignore.

6) As Jamie Carragher said in the Sky Sports studio, Gordon had been “the best player on the pitch by a distance in the first half” before recklessly raking his studs down the back of Virgil van Dijk’s leg to give them a mountain to climb.

Gordon had headed one decent chance over the bar, gifting Chris Sutton the perfect but slightly unfair “if that’s Alexander Isak” opportunity, and two further chances within the space of a couple of minutes, bullying Ibrahima Konate from a long ball in one instance, and very nearly directing an Anthony Elanga cross past Alisson having burst in ahead of Dominik Szoboszlai at the back post in another.

There will have been plenty of bets placed on a red card in this game and more piled specifically on Gordon before his awful challenge on Van Dijk, such was an intensity tantamount to mania on his part in response to his name being chanted by the fans more than anyone else as they bayed for Liverpool blood.

Metaphorically though, Anthony.

The dumbfounded look on his face as Van Dijk showed him the stud marks on his legs adds credence to the suggestion that Gordon isn’t one of football’s great thinkers, and effectively cost his side anything from this game, as no-one watching – given how bad Liverpool were and how good Newcastle were – could imagine 11vs11 ending in a victory for Arne Slot’s side.

7) We never fancied Liverpool’s chances of matching Newcastle’s “intensity” – something Arne Slot claimed they failed to do at St James’ Park last season and in the Carabao Cup final – and they were even further short of them here than in those two previous clashes.

It was the breathless game Newcastle wanted. Liverpool didn’t seem to have safe possession at any point in the first half and even in the second when they had the man advantage, Newcastle were all over them. None more so than Bruno Guimaraes.

As captain of the club, this looked as though it meant more to him than any of them. He could be seen winning the ball in his own box seconds before playing a pass into Liverpool’s. His belief never wavered and we genuinely don’t think Newcastle get back into this game without his leadership, let alone his work-rate, quality on the ball and desire to get his head on Tino Livramento’s cross to score.

It could only have been him, fortunate though he was to be vying in that aerial challenge with Milos Kerkez, who looks worryingly like a full-back who will do anything to avoid getting his head on the ball, including looking in entirely the wrong direction and creating a useful platform for opposition players to climb on top of him, as was the case here.

And Bruno’s quality looks set to be tested further in the coming weeks after two thirds of the dynamic midfield three walked off injured here, with Fabian Schar also set to join Joelinton and Sandro Tonali on the treatment table in what Howe described as a “bruising day”, physically and no doubt mentally.

8) Most of what you needed to know about the opening to this game is illustrated by Ryan Gravenberch scoring his goal with his 17th touch of the ball in the 35th minute. A Liverpool with any semblance of control would ordinarily see Gravenberch with more touches than most – he averaged over 70 per game last season.

Howe’s disappointment will be in Liverpool scoring not just from their first real chance, but from the first moment that had any sort of foothold in the game. There was fortune involved – Gakpo’s shot was blocked to give Gravenberch the chance. It was a fine finish from Gravenberch though, pulled back across his body and through Bruno Guimarães legs into the corner from the edge of the box.

We don’t quite no how Chris Sutton didn’t see the deflection after five replays, including one from the new nauseating Ref Cam, but it didn’t look as though Nick Pope would have got anywhere near it without that slight nick anyway.

9) Ahead of kick-off, Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher discussed the 84 per cent Opta match between Hugo Ekitike and Isak – no striker has a greater similarity to Liverpool’s new signing than the other one they’re targeting, which despite their insistence to the contrary at the time and since, suggests Newcastle were after a replacement for Isak when they made their bid for the Frenchman.

Slot used the striker he does have to pivot away from the inevitable questions about the striker he doesn’t this week.

“I think the way Hugo Ekitike started his career at Liverpool, we should talk about him and say how well he did,” Slot said. “It would be unfair to him to talk about other targets if they are actually there. And if they are there, we don’t speak about them in public. But I think the main thing should be that we talk about how well Hugo has done until now.”

In the absence of Isak, Newcastle fans aimed the majority of their striker hatred at Ekitike, whose only sin was signing for a superior football club, and who predictably rubbed salt in the Toon striker wounds by doubling Liverpool’s lead immediately after half-time with a quite brilliant strike in off the post.

We love his finishing style – side-footed at pace – which we saw against Bournemouth, with his goal against Crystal Palace also placed rather than laced. Ekitike was definitely at risk of being a flop given his price tag and hardly a rich goalscoring past, but three goals in three games is quite the start for a striker under pressure not just to prove himself worthy of his transfer fee but also to show that his new club might not need to immediately sign a £150m striker to take his spot in the first XI.

10) Florian Wirtz still has plenty to prove however.

“Tonight he will know about the pace of the Premier League,” Henry warned him ahead of a battle against arguably the best midfield trio in the division. Between a studs up challenge from Kieran Trippier in the 5th minute and roughly two occasions in which he found himself in a position to play a telling pass (and didn’t), the £100m playmaker can’t have enjoyed himself much.

We particularly enjoyed the bit where he attempted to play a pass with his right foot and kicked it onto his left to create a chance for Newcastle, and while we have little doubt Wirtz will tear lesser teams to shreds, this is the sort of game in which a player with his reputation, who may yet become the most expensive British signing in history, has to be making the difference. Time will tell.

11) The Isak transfer only happens if Liverpool meet an asking price that we, and quite possibly they, aren’t privy to and if Newcastle sign two new strikers, which looks increasingly unlikely after their search for new No.9s reached levels beyond desperate roughly four hours before kick-off.

After Liverpool beat them to Hugo Ekitike and Manchester United beat them to Benjamin Sesko, while Yoane Wissa pulls an Isak to force a move from Brentford which doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, Newcastle genuinely made a £50m bid for Jorgen Strand Larsen. No add-ons, £50m in one beautifully wrapped bundle, which – unbelievably – was rejected by Wolves, who – even more unbelievably – aren’t willing to listen to improved offers.

They only completed his permanent signing in July for £23m, and while he got a perfectly reasonable return of 14 Premier League goals on loan at Molineux last season, imagine for a moment Newcastle bidding £50m for him even a month ago and try to contain your scoffs. The world, specifically Newcastle’s part in it, has gone completely mad.

Fair f***s to them for insisting the 25-year-old is being targeted as a replacement for Callum Wilson though, and not Isak, because he’s still ‘not for sale’, and fair f***s to William Osula for reminding Howe and everyone else that Newcastle do actually still have a striker who can score goals when given the opportunity.

12) Osula’s also been linked with an exit this summer – he’s ‘on Bayer Leverkusen’s radar’ – but surely too much has to happen for that move to be sanctioned, at least the same ‘two strikers in’ caveat which is currently preventing Isak’s move.

And with Gordon now out for Leeds next weekend, Osula would be gutted not to start that game having scored the most glorious of equalisers, which came so close to being the perfect middle finger to Isak and Liverpool.

There was a lot to like about it: he gambled on the ball getting over the Liverpool defence, showed serious speed to get on the end of it and finishing smarts along with composure to tap the ball under the on-rushing Alisson.

What a moment and how cruel for Liverpool and their child off the bench to deny us the deliciousness of Newcastle’s only available striker equalising against the side that’s made him thus.

13) Ibrahima Konate is a problem. In two Premier League games this season he’s been found wanting, with Antoine Semenyo turning him inside out and then in again in the win over Bournemouth, and Dan Burn bullying him in the air here, for the William Osula goal, but in at least two other instances besides. It looks as though opposition teams have finally realised that by targeting the defender other than Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool are more than fallible.

We can’t work out why Liverpool’s line was so high for Osula’s goal, and have some sympathy for Konate – it’s not easy to get your head on the ball when backpedaling at such speed for such a distance. How are you supposed to jump in that situation? But he doesn’t have much of an excuse for failing to get his head on it given it came off his back before bouncing through to Osula. He looks clumsy in everything he does right now.

He’s so far been snubbing offers of a new contract which Liverpool may well take off the table at this rate. It may well have been a toss-up between him and Marc Guehi at the start of the season, but there’s now no doubt the Crystal Palace captain comes straight into this team.

14) Our esteemed editor won’t have been alone in switching off after Liverpool went 2-0 up. “I thought it was done,” will have been a thought shared by many, with the only remaining intrigue surely how many further goals Liverpool would score. But they pulled what Roy Keane might refer to as ‘an Arsenal’ – failing to go for the kill.

It’s at this point that we’re obliged to point out that Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool absolutely would have done. And while in many, many games last season, Arne Slot’s more conservative approach served the Reds far better than Klopp’s would have done, there are times when attack is the best form of defence, and this was one of those times.

Liverpool just didn’t do anything. They had no shots between their Ekitike’s goal in the 46th minute and Ngumoha’s deep into stoppage time. There’s no excuse for that against ten men, and while they’ve won both of their opening games, while undeniably ‘doing what champions do’ by winning both of them late on, they could really do with a comprehensive victory to ease doubts over their ability to stay the course, or at least one that doesn’t involve significant periods of panic which was absent for so much of Slot’s debut campaign.

15) “No, I’m very happy with the squad we’re having now,” Slot said in the build-up. “Very happy, as you could see, Friday night as well, that we could impact the game from the bench, as we did so many times last season.”

We weren’t convinced. Federico Chiesa became a cult hero against Bournemouth, but we wondered – and still do – whether his goal may end up being a blessing in disguise for Liverpool, who now appear to be content with him being Mohamed Salah’s backup despite the Italian being heavily linked with the exit for most of the transfer window.

Asked about a possible replacement for Luis Diaz, Slot suggested Florian Wirtz or Jeremie Frimpong could fill in. But that would obviously reduce options in other areas of the pitch. Four senior forwards for three positions feels like a disaster waiting to happen, particularly when one of those forwards is Chiesa.

But Slot’s bench came up trumps again, with Ngumoha the even more unlikely hero this time, though perhaps not for those who watched him during pre-season.

Asked about the 16-year-old’s goal on Sky Sports, presumably in the hope of puffed out cheeks and some sort of declaration of his genius and path to the very top, Slot instead simply said it was a “very good chance”, which is a good sign of his desire to keep Ngumoha’s feet on the ground, because without knowing about the teenager’s character, for any normal human child, that will take some doing.

He’s Liverpool’s youngest ever goalscorer and only the second 16-year-old to score a Premier League winner after one Wayne Rooney.

16) It was suggested before this game that it was ‘significant’ for all parties in the proposed Isak transfer. Newcastle were never going to sell him to Liverpool beforehand; it was something they needed to get past before any progress over his move could happen, like removing hair plugging a drain.

Talks are said to have taken place just before the game between Isak, Newcastle co-owner Jamie Reuben and a PIF delegation, so we may well be nearing a conclusion to the saga.

But we can’t imagine how this game, with Gordon’s suspension, Osula’s goal and the crushing nature of the unjust Liverpool victory will be endearing any Newcastle stakeholder to the thought of easing their striker’s path to Anfield.

And with Ekitike one of two positives for Liverpool along with Ngumoha, few will be seeing Isak as any sort of fix for a Reds side incredibly fortunate to have six points from two games having failed to find anything like the groove of last season.