Liverpool Salvages Draw at St James’ Park with Late Penalty

Last season at St James’ Park, Liverpool walked out with bedlam ringing in their ears and Rio Ngumoha’s 100th‑minute winner etched into the away end’s memory. Same fixture, same late drama this time – but the mood could not have been more different.

Dominik Szoboszlai’s 99th‑minute penalty salvaged a 2-2 draw. It brought relief, not ecstasy. A roar, yes, but one laced with a grim awareness: this team is still miles from where it wants to be.

Iraola’s Liverpool show fight – but also frailty

Andoni Iraola emerged with his unbeaten opening-day record intact and his message was clear. His players did not deserve to lose and refused to fold.

"It's probably not the result you want when you come in before the game but we definitely deserve this point and even more," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "The team has never given up and we've recovered one point and probably the taste is better because we score in the last minute."

Given the context, he is right to feel satisfied. Twice Liverpool trailed in a ferocious St James’ Park. Twice they hauled themselves back. A defeat would have been their first on the Premier League’s opening weekend since 2012-13. That streak survives, and so does some early-season belief.

But as the new manager flew back to Merseyside on Sunday night, the adrenaline would have faded. The performance left a different kind of imprint – one that underlined why this squad still looks thin and oddly unbalanced.

A team that doesn’t look like a contender… yet

"You're expecting Liverpool to get top four this season at least but they didn't look like a top four team today," former Scotland winger Pat Nevin said on 5 Live.

He wasn’t talking about effort. He was talking about ideas.

"There's a definite lack of creativity and somehow they must get the best out of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak because you certainly didn't get the best out of them today."

Both arrived for eye-watering fees last summer. Both know this has to be their stage. Neither took command of it.

All eyes were on them from the start. Isak, back at his former club after a drawn-out move from Newcastle last September, was booed relentlessly with every touch. He looked up for the fight, had 28 touches, ran the channels, snarled in the duels – and then fluffed the one moment that really mattered, wasting a glorious second-half chance he would routinely bury in black and white.

Wirtz started brightly between the lines, looking like he might knit Liverpool’s attacks together. Then Newcastle went 2-1 up and his influence faded. Iraola hooked him just after the hour, a decision that said as much about the player’s quiet afternoon as it did about the manager’s need to change the game.

For now, Liverpool remain a side that poses more questions than answers.

The Gakpo question and a restless window

Nowhere is that clearer than in the Cody Gakpo situation, which hangs over the final week of the transfer window. If Liverpool land the two attacking signings they want, Gakpo could be the one sacrificed.

On this evidence, that would be a brutal call.

The Dutchman was Liverpool’s standout performer at St James’ Park, taking his goal superbly and carrying their threat when others stalled. While others drifted, he imposed himself. On a day full of caveats and concerns, he was a genuine positive.

So was Victor Munoz. The Spanish forward came off the bench for his Liverpool debut and instantly injected purpose. It was Munoz who drove into the box and won the stoppage-time penalty that Szoboszlai buried. He looked sharp, aggressive, unafraid of the occasion.

His arrival coincided with Iraola’s most ruthless decision of the night.

Ngumoha’s tough afternoon

Rio Ngumoha, the teenager who wrote last season’s script with that 100th‑minute winner here, found this return unforgiving. He started on the right, a role that never quite suited him.

Ngumoha turns 18 next week and has grown up preferring the left flank, where he can cut in and influence play. On the opposite side he struggled to impact the game, and after just over an hour Iraola took him off.

The manager wants his wingers to be comfortable on both flanks. That experiment may not be over, but this was a reminder that development is rarely linear, especially in a side still searching for its attacking identity.

Once Munoz and Alexis Mac Allister entered on 63 minutes, the bench looked alarmingly light. What remained: Giorgi Mamardashvili, Ronald Araujo, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas, Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Lewis Koumas. Names with potential, yes, but not the depth profile of a team aiming for the top of the Premier League.

Iraola knows it. He needs more options.

Exposed on the break, light in the middle

The defensive picture was no more reassuring. Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong both endured difficult afternoons at full-back, and Liverpool were sliced open on the counter for both goals.

The absence of a specialist defensive midfielder screamed through the game. When Joe Willock put Newcastle 2-1 up, Iraola’s response was telling: Mac Allister dropped in just ahead of the back four, asked to bring some control and screen the chaos.

The numbers are damning. Since the start of last season, Liverpool have conceded more goals from fast breaks in all competitions than any other Premier League side – nine. This was not an outlier. It was a continuation.

That vulnerability hangs over everything else. Until the spine is reinforced, every attacking flourish feels slightly fragile, every risk potentially fatal.

Hope in the fight, not yet in the football

For all that, there were elements Iraola liked. He prefers to hold his debriefs the day after a match, but he did not hide his satisfaction with the attitude on show.

"I've liked a lot of the things I've seen from the team," he said. "There's definitely things to improve like the goals but I've seen a lot of things I've liked from the team. I've liked the energy, especially the players coming from the bench. I think we finished the game quite strong physically."

Szoboszlai echoed that defiance when he spoke to Sky Sports.

"We will never give up. I can guarantee you that," he said. "We have to fight every time - all day long during the 90 minutes. Everybody who came off the bench also made an impact as well. We need the whole squad and we need to be ready."

Desire has never been the problem for Liverpool on Tyneside. The travelling support saw that again as their team dragged itself off the canvas in stoppage time.

The problem is sharper, more unforgiving. This squad, as it stands, is not built to play the way Iraola wants across a full season. It must get better – in quality, in depth, and in the cold, hard details that separate a stirring comeback in August from a serious challenge in May.