Liverpool were eyeing up their first Premier League win of 2026 when they hosted Newcastle United on Saturday.
With Chelsea beating West Ham United 3-2 earlier in the day and Manchester United still to play this weekend, the Reds simply had to pick up a positive result.
Jamie Carragher was already fearing for Liverpool after they dropped out of the Champions League places last week.
Livepool scored four brilliant goals against Newcastle, but which was your favourite?
However, standing in their way this time around was a Newcastle United side who managed to play well against Arne Slot’s old foes, PSG, earlier this week.
Liverpool, meanwhile, had already dropped points against ‘weaker’ sides like Bournemouth, Burnley and Fulham in 2026.
Newcastle United pace on full display vs Liverpool
Prior to the match, Alan Shearer warned Liverpool about Newcastle’s wingers exploiting their makeshift back-four.
We saw a glimpse of the sheer power of the Magpies’ wide players within minutes of Saturday’s tie getting underway.
Anthony Gordon burst down the right to the roar of the away end, which was followed by a misplaced pass to his fellow forward, Anthony Elanga.
But despite the poor cross, the Swede managed to use his rapid pace to keep the ball in play, after it nearly went out for a throw-in, allowing Newcastle to stay on the attack.
Arne Slot must be jealous of Eddie Howe
Liverpool, on the other hand, do not have a single player who comes close to matching the speed of Gordon and Elanga.
Luis Diaz was quick, but he left for Bayern Munich in the summer, with Slot now having to largely rely on Cody Gakpo, Florian Wirtz or Mohamed Salah.
Gakpo and Wirtz have never been fast, while Salah has lost a yard in his later years.
It’s an ongoing problem for Slot, who has repeatedly spoken about his desire to use pacey attackers.
In an interview with Sky in late December, he spoke at length about adding fast players to his side, highlighting the pace of Hugo Ekitike and, of course, mentioning PSG.
He said: “As we can all see, he’s [Ekitike] a good finisher, he’s very comfortable on the ball. But what stands out for me is he belongs to the fastest players we have.
“That was one of the things I wanted to add to this team – incredible pace. Because I see many of the top teams have one, two, three individuals that have pace that is exceptional.
“We faced Paris Saint-Germain last season, where we had to face [Ousmane] Dembele, [Bradley] Barcola, [Desire] Doue – all these incredibly fast players. So that is what we’ve tried to add with him.”
Ekitike might be on the faster side for a striker, but he’s still nowhere near the level of players like Elanga.
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