Liverpool ... This is how you remind me
Liverpool 4-1 Newcastle United | Premier League Review
There is a line in that Nickelback song about forgetting who you are. It came on the radio as I walked the dog after the match last night, quiet streets, head still buzzing. Liverpool reminded us last night. Sharply. Loudly. When most of us likely least expected it, especially when Anthony Gordon put Newcastle ahead.
The first half hour was ugly and familiar. Loose, rattled, and pushed around, the crowd was restless. Then the game turned on instinct. The ball moved quicker, players stopped hiding, and Anfield stopped waiting. Not control, not choreography, but intent. That was the point. This was a glimpse of the Liverpool we were meant to be watching this season.
Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike are not a gimmick; they are the direction. One glides into space, the other attacks it, and both demand the ball when the noise is loudest. Dalglish/Rush, McManaman/Fowler, Gerrard/Torres - their connection feels alive already, and it's not something forced by a system. This is how ambitious teams play. Let’s stay sensible, though. It's only seven days since the Bournemouth debacle, but this looked like a side that recognises itself again.
Mohamed Salah was below his own standards, still delivered the assist that mattered. That's the level. Since his return, Liverpool have scored 15 goals in four games. Before that, 14 in nine. Numbers do not lie; they underline momentum.
The moment that cut deepest came at the end. Ibrahima Konate scoring, then dissolving. No performance analysis needed. These are young men, far from home, many encountering grief for the first time with the loss of Diogo Jota, now Konate, losing his father. Football can pause. Humanity cannot.
There is a Champions League race again. Messy, nervy, crowded. Liverpool may still fall short, but they might not, and that's what we'll live and breathe now over the next 5 months.
Like that song on the radio, you do not plan the moment that it lands, but you know exactly what it reminds you of.
Loved the Nickelback framing, actually fits perfectly. The Wirtz-Ekitike dynamic feels like it could be the spark that redefines this whole season, not just tactically but psychologicaly. Back in 2014 I remember Suarez-Sturridge doing somethng similar where it just clicked and the whole squad lifted. Numbers after Salah's return tell the story tbh.