Newcastle 2-0 Liverpool: Klopp’s Mistake and Other Talking Points

Jurgen Klopp’s’ high-flying Liverpool were clipped by a resilient and well drilled Newcastle side. The away team – who were coming off a 6-1 win at Southampton – were expected to make light work of relegation-threatened Newcastle but had to deal with a team that was bent on defending from the front and not giving much space to Liverpool.

Liverpool were stifled and the likes of Benteke and Firmino provided nothing to the team, instead it was Newcastle who did more in the second half of the game and were rewarded when Georginio Wijnaldum got the ball and his shot was deflected into the roof of the net by Martin Skrtel. With Liverpool chasing an equalizer, Wijnaldum ran onto a through ball in the dying minutes to give Newcastle a 2-0 win.

The win leaves Newcastle in the relegation zone but provides Steve McClaren a huge boost as he tries to save them from the drop while this is a spanner in the works for Klopp’s Liverpool, who were looking to make ground on the top 4.

We look back at a shock result and share the five talking points from the game.

Too many changes from Klopp

Jurgen Klopp might have been tempted to rest a few of his star performers from the 6-1 rout, but that didn’t work out today. Dropping the likes of Lallana, Origi and Sturridge actually broke up the continuity of the team and the lack of any firepower cost Liverpool the game. The German stated that he might have started this game with the same starting XI as the last one and maybe that would have been the way to go.

The Liverpool attack was poor

It was almost £50 million worth of attacking talent up front for Liverpool with Benteke and Firmino playing, but neither of them did much to justify their price tag. Firmino was largely invisible in the game while Benteke missed a glorious chance in the first half when he shot over in close range. Klopp has to get them playing better. This might have been just an off day, but there were too many players, including Ibe, in the Liverpool attack that forgot to turn up.

Georginio Wijnaldum finds his calling

We did earlier state that Steve had pulled off a coup by signing Georginio Wijnaldum and the Dutch midfielder had a great start to his career at Newcastle before it went a little pear shaped. This match showed what he is capable of with his late runs and pace troubling Liverpool. He played a key role in the first goal and then made a lung-bursting run to score the second and gave Newcastle a much-needed win.

McClaren gets it right

Steve McClaren did get his tactics right by not playing as the home team and rather absorbing and defending the attacks from Liverpool. They always looked to break after Liverpool’s attack and that worked a treat for them. This was also a defensive display which will please the manager after they conceded 5 goals in the last game. Newcastle were effective and that should be a positive for McClaren, hopefully, he can do something similar in the next game and push them out of the relegation zone.

Klopp should learn from this

Jurgen Klopp stated that he did not want his team to get complacent but that is exactly what Liverpool did or at least the players did at St James’ Park. The team were drab and Klopp would have learned a lot from this game. Alberto Moreno’s shot into the goal was ruled offside though it was onside but barring that Liverpool were missing in attack and the faster Klopp learns that every game in the league is tough, the better it will be for him and Liverpool as they chase a top-four finish this season.