Liverpool’s Szoboszlai spot on with late, late leveller to salvage point at Newcastle
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“We should all be dreamers at heart.”Out on the pitch it swiftly became apparent that both Matthias Jaissle, Keegan’s latest successor in the Newcastle dugout, and Liverpool’s Andoni Iraola are on individual missions to create forms or organised chaos capable of subjecting the best opponents to torrid nightmares.Despite a few, ultimately forlorn attempts to introduce a semblance of control on the part of the visiting playmaker Florian Wirtz, this was sheer, unadulterated chaos of the sort to make Iraola’s Anfield predecessor, Arne Slot, wince. Along the way to a draw secured, slightly fortunately, by Dominik Szoboszlai’s stoppage-time penalty for Liverpool, the returning former Newcastle striker Alexander Isak left minimal imprint on a match that had been supposed to be all about him.
Jacquet and his central defensive partner, Virgil van Dijk, certainly had no answers as the young Dane turned and accelerated towards goal following Ryan Gravenberch’s concession of possession on the edge of the Newcastle box.All that remained was for the home centre forward to spot Anthony Elanga leaving Milos Kerkez for dust down the right, slide a pass in the winger’s direction and watch as, a steadying touch later, Elanga’s shot flashed beyond Alisson’s reach.Only five minutes had passed, Jaissle tenure as Newcastle’s head coach was off to perfect start and, already, Iraola looked more than a little stressed. This was also Iraola’s Premier League debut with Liverpool and he surely had not bargained on gaining such an uncomfortable insight as to why Slot found last season such hard going.Joe Willock’s superb finish, found despite the attentions of several Liverpool players, had looked like being the winning goal.
The 38-year-old German trusted 18-year-old Sean Steur, recently arrived from Ajax, alongside Lewis Miley in the key holding roles in his 4-2-3-1 system and for long periods they held their own against Wirtz and co.Behind them, Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman excelled in central defence while Amar Dedic enjoyed a superb debut at right-back following his £30m move from Benfica.There are ways to leave a football club but the route Isak chose – mounting a one-man strike before forcing a record £125m move to Liverpool last summer – ensured he was greeted by prolonged cheers and chants of “rat, rat, rat” as he alighted from the visiting team bus.If Isak seemed quite unconcerned – he grinned broadly in the face of some sustained hostility before kick-off – the Sweden striker added to Iraola’s problems in the course of a wholly anonymous first half, failing to unleash a single shot on goal.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIndeed when, early in the second half, Wirtz briefly began bringing a bit of sustained cohesion to the team in red, it was a forward facing an uncertain future at Anfield who capitalised. When Jaissle’s midfield inexplicably stood off him Gakpo’s first-time shot from outside the area offered Hornicek no hope of a save.With Osula by now limping on came Joe Willock for Newcastle leaving the impressive Yoane Wissa to shift from the No 10 to No 9 role.