Andoni Iraola began his Liverpool reign with the honesty expected of a manager who knew perfection was never likely on day one. \u201cI would like to say on the first day we are going to be perfect, everyone will be in place,\u201d he said with a strained smile, \u201cbut probably it is not going to be like this.\u201d It was a line that quickly matched the evidence on the pitch.<\/p>\n
With transfer business still unresolved, Liverpool\u2019s current group offered no easy lift to the mood. Iraola\u2019s football is built on controlled risk, and he has been clear about his preference. \u201cI prefer to make mistakes,\u201d he told Jamie Carragher before his debut. That approach was laid bare early at St James\u2019 Park, where Liverpool\u2019s midfield shape left them exposed in the fifth minute.<\/p>\n
Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai were both caught ahead of the ball after Amar Dedi\u0107 won possession back for Newcastle inside his own penalty area. Florian Wirtz was skipped past by the slide, and the home side were suddenly running into open space. It was a problem that returned later, with Gravenberch again advanced for Newcastle\u2019s second goal after losing the ball near the opposition box. Szoboszlai, meanwhile, was too weak in his attempt to stop Yoane Wissa or eventual scorer Joe Willock.<\/p>\n
There were also signs that Liverpool remain in the market for width. Bradley Barcola is viewed as the priority on the left, while Yankuba Minteh is being closely monitored for the other side. Either move would affect Rio Ngumoha, who has already built his reputation from the left. He has made 30 senior appearances for Liverpool, and only one has come on the right. A move for Barcola would push him, and V\u00edctor Mu\u00f1oz, over there more often.<\/p>\n
Ngumoha\u2019s 60-minute spell offered little comfort. Lewis Hall kept him on the touchline and forced him into narrower, weaker positions whenever he tried to come inside. Alexander Isak faced a hostile reception throughout, and when Liverpool were awarded a stoppage-time penalty, he did not take it. Szoboszlai did instead and scored. Wirtz also struggled to influence the game behind him, and Iraola\u2019s warning about Liverpool\u2019s \u201coverplaying\u201d in the final third felt justified. After an expensive first season, the pressure on Wirtz remains considerable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iraola\u2019s first Liverpool outing exposed risk, frustration and unanswered questions across the pitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,194],"tags":[1162,180,182],"class_list":["post-18712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-newcastle-united","tag-analytics","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}