A Dramatic Turnaround at Anfield

Eddie Howe had three strikers sitting behind him at Anfield. Two of them were his own, signed at great expense in the summer but left on the bench in favor of winger Anthony Gordon as the center-forward. The third was Alexander Isak, a player he lost to Liverpool and who is currently injured. However, it was the one on the pitch, the one he truly wanted, who ultimately decided the game.

“I’ve tried to sign him twice,” said Howe on Friday. “He has got a bit of everything. He has great movement, can score with both feet and dribbles really well.”

It wasn’t Howe’s intention, but the Newcastle boss had essentially predicted what was going to happen. Not that you needed a crystal ball. Not when all that Hugo Ekitike needs is a football.

For three minutes before half-time, the visitors could not live with the French striker. He scored twice to reverse Gordon’s opener and, in doing so, he effectively killed Newcastle’s spirit and the game.

That Howe’s men were the better team up to that point didn’t matter. That’s what merciless marksmen can do, and that’s why Newcastle tried to sign Ekitike as Isak’s replacement six weeks before the Swede’s eventual move to Liverpool.

In the end, they spent almost all of the £1m of the £125m allocated for Isak on Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa, the pair who were left out here. As a game-plan, it worked—at least until Ekitike intervened.

“He is someone we are going to have to do really, really well against,” Howe had said. Well, they didn’t.

For Arne Slot, this win was his side’s first from a losing position this season and was capped by Florian Wirtz’s sixth goal in 10 matches in the second half. Isak may be stuck in the stands, but his fellow summer arrivals are the key to unlocking Liverpool’s campaign.

Slot and Howe have shared common ground of late—consistency of results apart—and that is a vocal minority of supporters, armed with a keyboard if not a compelling argument, who want change in the dugout.

In Slot’s case, that view lacks appreciation for the triumph of last season and empathy for the trauma of the summer and the death of Diogo Jota. He deserves time—this season, at least—to process both emotions and new personnel.

For Howe, there are parallels. His summer was not marked by tragedy, but he and his team are still absorbing the loss of Isak. He hinted recently that, after four years in charge, maybe some fans have grown bored.

It feels as much like a cousin of boredom—complacency. The misplaced notion that another manager would suddenly resolve the issues that exist in a squad, and season, of transition.

Match Facts

Liverpool (4-2-3-1):

Alisson 7; Szoboszlai 7, Konate 7, Van Dijk 7, Kerkez 6.5; Gravenberch 7, Mac Allister 6.5; Salah 6, Wirtz 7.5, Gakpo 6; Ekitike 8

Subs: Mamardashvili, Endo, Chiesa, Jones, Robertson, Nyoni, Ramsay, Ngumoha, Nallo

Manager: Arne Slot 6.5

Newcastle (4-3-3):

Pope 6; Trippier 5.5, Thiaw 5.5, Burn 6, Hall 7; Ramsey 6, Tonali 6.5, Willock 7 (Woltemade 72); Elanga 6 (Murphy 72), Gordon 7.5, Barnes 6.5 (Wissa 72)

Subs: Ramsdale, A Murphy, Shahar, Botman, Miley, J Murphy, Wissa, Osula, Woltemade

Manager: Eddie Howe 6.5

Ref: Simon Hooper 7

Still, Newcastle ventured here in hope, and that is a rarity bordering on absurdity given they last won in the league at Anfield in 1994. It was a belief fueled by the energy and spirit of their 1-1 draw at Paris Saint-Germain in midweek.

But the choice of Gordon ahead of Woltemade and Wissa had the warriors bashing their keys.

With the Scouser as striker this season, Newcastle had yet to win and had scored just once from five matches.

Still, Gordon was the nuisance he can be through the middle as the visitors refused to let Liverpool breathe during an opening of intent and intensity.

Harvey Barnes had not long cracked the post from a free-kick when Newcastle took a deserved lead in the 36th minute.

Gordon, speaking in Paris this week, said he had no answer as to why he had not scored from open play in the Premier League in over a year, yet was free-scoring in the Champions League.

He found a response to that question and his recent critics when he drilled low across Allison in front of The Kop.

It was a goal that allowed the scoreline to reflect the balance of play, at least to that point. Come half-time, Liverpool led.

Ekitike’s first was about instinct, his second opportunism. The equalizer, on 41 minutes, owed much to the bustling endeavor of Wirtz, who barged between two defenders before squaring to the six-yard area, where Ekitike pounced to apply a one-touch poke beyond Nick Pope.

Two minutes later and, with Malick Thiaw inviting him to shoot from what the defender presumed was a narrow angle, Ekitike’s RSVP was delivered into the bottom corner.

From moody groans of irritation, Anfield chorused the name of the player who had turned the game. He is also the one, more than any other here, who can turn their season.

Mo Salah then teed up Wirtz for a tidy finish in the 67th minute, and there was a poignant moment for Ibrahima Konate, who netted from close range in stoppage-time in his first game back since the death of his father.

There were tears for Konate, and Howe must have felt like shedding one too, given the contribution of the player he has courted for so long.