Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap following Newcastle United 3 Liverpool 3 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season…

The etymology of the phrase “waiting for the other shoe to drop” is actually a bit vague.

It is said to come from boarding houses where the work boots were taken off. The first would be loud, but the second might be quieter, might never come, hence the wait.

Today the first shoe dropped – Liverpool’s first half performance. Some of us may have wondered if this shoe could drop: a tough run with a strong team and a difficult surface.

The second shoe was softer. What happens at 2:3 happens precisely because it was 2:3. The second blow falls when Kelleher misses his shot and Fabian Schar fails to keep him alive, killing the train dead by forcing it over the line.

The first shoe was heavy. Liverpool were bad in the first half but Newcastle were good. How you view this Liverpool performance will largely depend on your general view of Newcastle, and your general view of Newcastle could be all over the map. After all, this is a team that has now won one win in its last 10 league games.

But I think they are good. Good at many of the difficult things in football, less good at putting weaker teams in their place, less good at converting hard-fought advantages into clarity on the scoreboard. And because they were good, they hurt Liverpool in the first half.

Sandro Tonali was by far the best midfielder of the first half and Liverpool couldn’t accept that. Sensing that Liverpool wanted to transform into space, they set traps and hurled them to the ground. They had Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak ready to go and got the goal their efforts deserved.

The problem is that Liverpool are simply making the English and European champions look stupid and now Newcastle is hurting them. But Newcastle probably have eight or nine players good enough to start for a team interested in reaching the last eight of the Champions League, and they’re almost all on the pitch.

Since his arrival, the manager has had a clear view of this league, and he has also spoken clearly about the depth of this league. Tonight is a prime example of that.

Newcastle are better positioned, better trained, smarter and sharper than AC Milan or RB Leipzig, Liverpool’s first and second European away opponents this season. They have a better game plan for dealing with the Reds.

This should come as no surprise to Slot and his team. That is the task and that is the ground on which neither Arsenal nor Manchester City have been able to win.

It’s almost underlined in the second half – let’s put it another way: if Newcastle United had Mo Salah and not Jacob Murphy (who trains and trains well), but all the other players were the same for 90 minutes, what would the end result be? Remember that when you think of her.

And remember that when you think of us. To be honest, Salah wasn’t particularly good for Liverpool until he was absolutely unbelievably brilliant.

He didn’t have a 7/10 and then reached the heights. He was 5/10. And then he was 38. Then he was unplayable, capable of anything, of anything. Then the game became about his brilliance, combined with the brilliance of Curtis Jones and Trent Alexander-Arnold and the energy of Dominik Szoboszlai.

Liverpool wasn’t fixed and Newcastle wasn’t bowed, but the game was suddenly on a plane of existence that lesser mortals can’t live with.

That brings us to the second shoe. The soft shoe. The referee calls a foul because he did not call the foul immediately beforehand. Newcastle had a kitchen sink they could throw away.

But ultimately the ball is there for Kelleher to hit. Because of the excellence, because of Kelleher’s one-on-one save in the first half, the second shoe is not the resounding sound of defeat. But it is the velvet blow that Liverpool gets what they deserve.

Make no mistake – Liverpool didn’t deserve to win the game. Make no mistake – a lead before the end of the game means you have lost two points. Make no mistake – the number of five players in two away games is cause for concern. Because the next away game is the most important of the season.

And maybe now it’s contextual. Liverpool have gained a lead and it is important that they get through next weekend unscathed. We gave courage. To Southampton. To Newcastle United. To Everton. And to the chasing field.

It would be nice if there was a hard stop until Saturday at 2:30 p.m. It’s a long season and hard work and no one should have any illusions about that. But we remain top of every league you care to name and only one team has managed to beat us all season. Make no mistake – no one should be discouraged by overall ambitions.

But we must be as cold and hard as steel to survive Saturday and rattle into the rest of Advent. Put your shoes back on, put your steel-toed boots back on and don’t back down, Liverpool.

No more regressions now.

Neil

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