Liverpool's Late Penalty Salvages Draw at St James' Park

The last time Liverpool walked into St James’ Park on an August afternoon, Rio Ngumoha ripped the roof off the place with a 100th-minute winner. Utter bedlam. A moment that felt like the start of something.

This time the late drama came again, but the mood was very different.

Dominik Szoboszlai’s 99th-minute penalty salvaged a 2-2 draw and a point that Liverpool absolutely needed. Relief, not euphoria. A roar, yes, but one laced with worry about what this team actually is under Andoni Iraola.

Late rescue, lingering doubts

Iraola was adamant his side did not deserve to lose, and on the balance of their fight, he had a case. They trailed twice in a hostile, howling St James’ Park, yet 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."

He’s right about the taste. A defeat would have been Liverpool's first on the opening weekend since 2012-13. The draw keeps that record intact and injects some belief. It does not, however, hide the problems.

This is a side still built on questions. Some of them are urgent.

Not yet a top-four team

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

That verdict stung because it rang true. Liverpool’s structure creaked, their defending on the break was ragged, and their big attacking names struggled to stitch anything together with conviction.

"There are more players to come in, so you can't make a real decision on how their season is going to go," Nevin added. "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."

All eyes had been on that pair. Wirtz, the marquee creator. Isak, the former Newcastle striker whose transfer dragged on for weeks last September and left bruises on Tyneside. Every touch he took here was booed.

Wirtz started brightly, showing flashes between the lines, but faded and was withdrawn just after the hour, moments after Newcastle went 2-1 up. Isak, meanwhile, looked fired up, demanded the ball, and finished with 28 touches – but crucially, he squandered a huge chance in the second half. The sort of opportunity he regularly buried in black and white.

Both arrived for nine-figure fees last summer. Both know this level of output will not cut it for long.

The Gakpo question

If Liverpool are a work in progress, Cody Gakpo sits at the heart of the puzzle.

His future is tangled up with the final week of the transfer window. If, as expected, Liverpool land two more attacking players, Gakpo could be the one to make way. He has interest, he has value, and the club have been moving pieces around him.

They have been linked with Paris St-Germain pair Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye, and have already seen two bids knocked back by Brighton for Yankuba Minteh.

Yet at St James’ Park, Gakpo was Liverpool’s best player.

He took his goal superbly, timing his movement and finish with the sort of assurance that has sometimes gone missing. On a day when Wirtz and Isak misfired, he looked sharp, purposeful, and alive to every loose ball.

That only sharpens the dilemma. Do you cash in on the forward who just carried your attack on opening day?

A debut spark and a teenager’s struggle

There was at least one clear positive for Iraola: Victor Munoz.

The Spanish forward came off the bench for his Liverpool debut and immediately changed the temperature of the game. He won the late penalty that Szoboszlai buried, driving at Newcastle’s tiring back line and forcing mistakes.

His introduction, alongside Alexis Mac Allister in the 63rd minute, underlined another truth: Liverpool’s bench is thin for a club with top-four ambitions.

Once those two entered, Iraola’s remaining options were Giorgi Mamardashvili, Ronald Araujo, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas, Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Lewis Koumas. Functional names, promising youngsters, but not a bench that terrifies anyone yet.

Ngumoha’s afternoon captured that gap between potential and reality. The teenager, who turns 18 next week, was the hero here last August, but this time he laboured. Deployed on the right, away from his favoured left side from youth level, he never truly got going.

Iraola’s decision to take him off just after the hour – to bring on Munoz, who immediately delivered – summed up the contrast. Ngumoha is part of the future, but he is not ready to carry this attack from an unfamiliar role.

With Iraola insistent that his wingers must be able to operate on both flanks, the question now is whether that experiment continues once more forwards arrive.

Exposed on the break

If the attack is incomplete, the defensive structure looks even more fragile.

Both full-backs, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, endured poor games. They were repeatedly caught high and wide, and Liverpool were punished on the counter for both goals they conceded.

The absence of a natural defensive midfielder screamed through the contest. Once Joe Willock put Newcastle 2-1 up, Iraola dropped Mac Allister into a deeper role, just ahead of the back four, to try to plug the gaps. It was a stopgap, not a solution.

The numbers are damning. Since the start of last season, Liverpool have now conceded more goals via fast breaks in all competitions than any other Premier League side: nine. That is not a blip. It is a pattern.

For a coach who thrives on high energy and aggressive pressing, that vulnerability will gnaw at Iraola.

Encouraging signs, but a thin squad

Strip away the chaos and there were elements the new manager genuinely liked.

"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."

He is known for holding his debriefs the day after a match, letting the emotions cool before the analysis begins. This one will be busy. The lack of depth, the defensive frailty, the misfiring stars – all of it will be on the table.

Inside the dressing room, though, the message was simpler. Szoboszlai, the man who kept Liverpool’s opening day unbeaten run alive, cut straight to the core.

"We will never give up. I can guarantee you that," he told Sky Sports. "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."

The desire is there. It always has been on Tyneside.

What Liverpool lack right now is not heart, but heft – quality and quantity. The window is still open. The season has only just started. The question is whether the club can move quickly enough to turn this scrappy, spirited point into the foundation of something stronger, or whether nights like this will become their new normal.