In his latest column, John Aldridge reflects on Liverpool's dramatic win over Newcastle United and the impact of teenage sensation Rio Ngumoha
Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
Plenty has been made of Liverpool’s remarkable victory at Newcastle United on Monday night. But for me there is one problem Arne Slot must address – and it isn’t necessarily the defence.
The balance of the midfield isn’t quite right just yet. Yes, I know Liverpool have had players missing at the start of the season and they were without Alexis Mac Allister in the North East.
But there’s a bit more to it than that. Part of the issue is Florian Wirtz has come in as the number 10 and is still adjusting to the physicality and pace of the Premier League.
I’ve no worries about him getting used to it. He will. But he is much more of an attacking force than any of the players who featured in the role last season, and that’s putting more defensive pressure on the other two midfielders.
Really, of those on the books, only Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo could be deemed defensive-minded, although Mac Allister isn’t too bad in that regard.
The worry for me is the defence isn’t being given the protection it needs, not least when up against a team who plays the long ball as much as Newcastle did.
We just need to get that balance right – and we know it’s possible for Slot because we won the championship last season – because it really didn’t help us on Monday, which was like a war for Newcastle, primarily due to the Alexander Isak situation.
I’m not sure what malice Newcastle should have towards Liverpool over Isak – the Reds simply want to buy the player, made a massive bid and Isak wants to come. It’s not Liverpool’s fault he doesn’t want to play for Newcastle.
But it made for a lively atmosphere. And Eddie Howe chose to turn the game into an old-fashioned encounter by instructing his players to put the ball in the mixer, gain set-pieces and win the second ball in midfield at all costs.
Referee Simon Hooper found the game hard to handle, but in fairness most officials would have done. It was epitomised by Anthony Gordon’s red card for his silly tackle on Virgil van Dijk. That was a striker’s challenge, someone so intent on closing a player down that he was out of control.
Liverpool have to be careful now because teams will have seen the game and think we might have a problem defending set-pieces and long throws, which are coming back into the game.
As I’ve said, it’s not just an issue with the defence, even though it’s evident Milos Kerkez and in particular Ibrahima Konate are struggling at present.
Both were poor for the goals. We’ve already seen signs Kerkez can struggle at the far post perhaps because of his height, but he really has to try to head the ball rather than turn and let Bruno Guimaraes head it in. That’s so poor.
The second Newcastle goal was even worse, the kind of goal you’d fume about conceding at schoolboy level. A big goalkeeper punt forward, Konate turns his head not really want to head the ball, Dan Burn flicks it on and William Osula touches it in. It’s as bad as it gets.
The annoying thing is there were lots of other good things defensively, and going forward our goals were well-worked, particularly the winner where the build-up was sublime.
There’s so much to applaud offensively but defensively – such as consistently keeping a high line – the basics aren’t quite there yet.
And throwing away leads as we have in our first three games of the season isn’t the hallmark of a title-winning team. Slot will know that.
Rio grand - but don't be hasty
It was written in the stars for Rio Ngumoha to come on and score the winner at Newcastle.
But rather than now heap expectation on the youngster, let his development takes its course naturally. If he’s going to become a good player, he will do that naturally. He doesn’t need any extra pressure.
However, you can already tell he’s got a lot of promise. His composure with the finish for the goal was brilliant. Dare I say if that had fallen to someone like Darwin Nunez, it may not have ended up with the same result.
Ngumoha could easily have rushed it. But the way he put it away reminded me of Robbie Fowler – or myself!
I remember my celebrations when I scored my first goal for Liverpool. I was practically in the Anfield Road Stand with the home supporters!
But I was 27 when scoring the winner against Southampton at home – Ngumoha is not even 17 yet and to score such a dramatic strike at Newcastle is a much bigger stage.
It showed the bottle the lad has demonstrated whenever he’s been given a chance with the first team.
Plenty of us were gutted about Luis Diaz leaving, but you can see why Liverpool don’t want to potentially stunt the growth of Ngumoha.
We can’t put too much expectation on his shoulders, but you can’t help but get excited. If nurtured in the right way, Ngumoha could well go on to become a very good player for Liverpool.