There was absolutely nothing super about this. Nothing super at all.
And if Fenway Sports Group were, at least for a while, intent on taking Liverpool out of the Champions League, it appears Jurgen Klopp and his players are now doing the job regardless.
How else to explain this latest bewildering performance from the Reds that has landed a potentially decisive blow on their hopes of a top-four finish?
If there were no real protests outside Anfield in the wake of the European Super League debacle, there surely would have been at the full-time whistle had fans been permitted to attend.
It wasn’t that Liverpool were completely awful. Indeed, going forward they created enough chances after Mohamed Salah’s early opener to have won several matches.
But the longer the game progressed, the more opportunities were spurned, the more relegation-threatened Newcastle United were invited to gain confidence and momentum.
And the self-destruction during injury-time underlined why the Reds can have few complaints if they miss out on a return to Europe’s top table.
Liverpool were lucky Callum Wilson had a goal disallowed for an extremely harsh VAR call, a rare case this season of the technology falling in their favour.
Even then, though, they couldn’t capitalise on their fortune, allowing another Newcastle substitute, Joe Willock, to thump home an equaliser.
This was the kind of collapse the Reds have inflicted on opponents during the previous three seasons. Now they are bringing it upon themselves, the second time inside a week they have let victory slip in the closing stages.
The mentality monsters are no more.
No matter what kind of opportunity arrives for Liverpool at Anfield this year, they simply do not want to take it.
Indeed, by the time supporters are allowed for the final-day visit of Crystal Palace, there’s every chance the Reds will have been reduced to squabbling for a Europa League berth or even, gulp, one in the Europa League Conference.
Yes, Liverpool are missing those fans, in the same way they are missing key, influential players.
But even allowing for that impact at Anfield, Klopp’s side have sufficient quality to secure more points than they have – a shortfall that will be the reason they miss out on the top four.
And this latest dismal showing cannot be pinned on the tumult of the previous week.
After the furore of the ESL plan, Liverpool were invited to earn Champions League qualification. On this evidence, they quite simply won’t.
