Liverpool's Familiar Flaws Resurface as Wirtz and Isak Struggle
Pat Nevin didn’t need a second look. “You can see the weaknesses that Liverpool had last season have not gone away,” he said on BBC Radio 5 Live. At St. James’ Park, they were not just still there – they were amplified.
Andoni Iraola rolled the dice by planting Florian Wirtz in front of a flimsy midfield pairing of Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai. It backfired. Badly.
Soft centre, same story
Even against a Newcastle side stripped of their most dangerous forward and two best midfielders over the summer, Liverpool were alarmingly easy to slice open. Not occasionally. Repeatedly.
Gravenberch and Szoboszlai can both play. Nobody doubts that. But everyone can see where their instincts lie. They run towards goal, not back to protect it. Asking them to anchor a midfield is asking for trouble, and within five minutes, Liverpool got exactly that.
Both midfielders were still in the opposition box when Newcastle sprang forward. One pass, then another, and suddenly Anthony Elanga was racing away to finish off a break that felt painfully familiar. Liverpool conceded that type of goal over and over last season. On this evidence, nothing has changed.
The pattern didn’t stop there. Cody Gakpo briefly dragged Liverpool level, only for the visitors to implode again almost immediately. Just 176 seconds after the equaliser, Joe Willock restored Newcastle’s lead, helped by more slack positioning and muddled defending from Iraola’s side. One punch, a response, then straight back on the canvas.
Iraola turns to the bench
Chasing the game for a second time, Iraola moved quickly. Off came Wirtz and Ngumoha. On came Alexis Mac Allister and summer signing Victor Munoz.
Munoz at least brought some purpose. Direct, decisive, he ran at defenders and forced the issue, eventually winning the penalty that allowed Szoboszlai to snatch a draw. The newcomer looked like a man trying to grab his chance with both hands.
Ngumoha never really had that luxury. Thrown in on the right wing to fill the void left by Mohamed Salah, he was asked to do a specialist job in a role that doesn’t suit him. He prefers the left. Instead, he was tasked with replacing one of the greatest right-sided forwards of the Premier League era. It was a hiding to nothing.
Wirtz drifts, questions grow
Sympathy for Wirtz in the away end, though, is running dry.
Liverpool supporters have been patient with the Germany international, who arrived at Anfield last summer amid huge excitement and an even bigger fee. Jamie Carragher, writing in the Daily Telegraph before the new Premier League season kicked off, challenged the £100 million signing to show he was more than just “neat and tidy” on the ball.
This was his chance to answer that call. He didn’t. Wirtz managed one of Liverpool’s few shots on target in the first half, but that was about it. The larger issue is no longer his output in a single game, but where he actually belongs in this team.
On the left wing, he has often looked lost, drifting without impact. Here, used in what is supposed to be his best role, he still failed to stamp any authority on a match Liverpool needed him to illuminate. For a player signed to change the club’s attacking ceiling, he currently looks like a piece that doesn’t fit the puzzle.
Isak’s return falls flat
On the other side, Alexander Isak offered Liverpool no comfort either.
Back at Newcastle, the Swede delivered a performance that bordered on anonymous. Service to him was limited, yes, but when his big moment came, he squandered it. Midway through the second half, the ball broke kindly in the area. Isak leaned back and ballooned his effort over the bar. The home fans roared with laughter. Liverpool fans did not.
Isak’s struggles, paired with Wirtz’s ongoing malaise, are no joke for a club that staked so much on the pair. The plan was clear: spend heavily on two elite forwards to drag Liverpool deep into the Champions League and back into the title picture. Instead, a year on, both are labouring against mid-table Premier League opposition.
Problems everywhere, time running already
The issues do not stop with the marquee names. Milos Kerkez endured a miserable evening. Jeremie Frimpong, too, looked off the pace on Tyneside. Across the pitch, Liverpool carried problems – in structure, in balance, in belief.
That is why the pressure now sits squarely on those controlling the chequebook. The squad still looks short. The spine still looks fragile. If Liverpool are serious about competing at the top, more money has to be found before the transfer window closes.
There is, of course, time. The season has barely started. Iraola has only just walked into a dressing room still scarred by last year’s limp, trophy-less finish in fifth place. Turning a side drained of confidence into a ruthless machine does not happen overnight, and Szoboszlai was right to point out that twice coming from behind to draw offers at least something to cling to.
But nights like this carry a different weight. This was supposed to be the season when Wirtz and Isak started to solve Liverpool’s long-standing problems. Instead, they walked off at St. James’ Park looking like part of them.
How long can a club with Liverpool’s ambitions afford to wait for its most expensive answers to start delivering?
