It has been a while since I sat down and wrote properly about Liverpool.
I took most of the summer off, which in hindsight probably made this the perfect game to come back for. Newcastle away, opening weekend, new manager, a lot of new ideas, a fair bit of chaos and, eventually, a stoppage time penalty to rescue a point.
Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at St James’ Park was one of those games where the numbers can pull you in one direction and your eyes can pull you somewhere else entirely.
On paper, Liverpool had enough to make a decent case that they deserved something. They had 61% possession, 27 shots, 36 touches in the Newcastle box and finished with an expected goals figure of 2.98. Newcastle had 13 shots, 16 touches in Liverpool’s box and an xG of 1.58.
If somebody had handed me those numbers before I watched the game, I would probably have assumed Liverpool had been the better side for long spells.
I do not think that is really what happened.
Liverpool had a lot of the ball and spent plenty of time in Newcastle territory, but Newcastle looked far more comfortable than those headline stats suggest. Whenever the game became stretched, they looked dangerous. Whenever Liverpool lost the ball in the wrong area, there was a sense that the next few seconds could become a problem very quickly.
That, more than anything, is what stayed with me after the final whistle.
