Brendan Rodgers spoke convincingly about “adversity making you stronger” but the Liverpool manager’s tense body language belied the fluency of his sentences.
As he patiently discussed “steep learning curves” and Raheem Sterling’s “very quiet” performance, the flatness in Rodgers’ voice and the disappointment in his eyes appeared to betray inner doubts. This, it seemed, was a man in urgent need of a restorative glass of wine with an old friend and mentor. Happily, Alan Pardew was on hand to reassure his one time youth coach at Reading that there really is truth in clichés. If Rodgers required proof, he needed to glance no further than Newcastle United’s manager.
Barely a fortnight ago Liverpool’s struggle to adapt to life after Luis Suárez looked almost trivial compared with the crisis unfolding on Tyneside. Pardew’s sacking was deemed a case of “when, not if”, a relegation skirmish apparently loomed and the players were widely dismissed as inadequate. Four consecutive wins later Newcastle’s manager smiled as a fan dressed as a skeleton and wearing a Halloween mask stood behind the home dug-out waving a placard bearing the message “Pardew - Back From The Dead”. Out on the pitch, his team greeted the final whistle with a spontaneous group hug.
It is amazing what a makeover can do. In Newcastle’s case this has involved Pardew ditching the unflattering 4-2-3-1 formation, which worked really only when Yohan Cabaye was still around, and replacing it with a better balanced 4-3-3.
Now Newcastle are able to show off their strong points, most notably formidable counter-attacking pace. Moussa Sissoko’s redeployment in a much deeper, more central, midfield role has also helped, leaving the powerful France midfielder looking a player reborn at the heart of a team in which competition for places is suddenly intense.
Peter Beardsley’s promotion to development team manager has coincided with the emergence of a string of youngsters clearly well prepared for first XI duties. On Saturday it was hard to believe Mehdi Abeid was making his Premier League debut. Excellent alongside Sissoko in midfield, Abeid proved a man of the match contender on a day when Pardew’s three substitutes – Rolando Aarons, Rémy Cabella and Ayoze Pérez – all asked questions Liverpool struggled to answer. Pérez, 21, and a £1.5m summer signing from Tenerife, was supposed to spend most of this season being polished by Beardsley but instead scored his second league goal in six days.
He hooked the ball beyond Simon Mignolet at the end of a jet-heeled break featuring a slick one-two involving Paul Dummett and Sissoko and an awful defensive mistake on Alberto Moreno’s part.
Suffocated by Newcastle’s assiduous closing down and deep defending but increasingly frightened of their counter-attacking acceleration, Liverpool were unrecognisable from last season’s title challengers. They are not in great shape for Tuesday’s daunting Champions League trip to Real Madrid. Mario Balotelli’s principal contribution was offering Glen Johnson an animated tactical lecture during an interruption in play but it was not the isolated Italian’s fault that Dummett marked Sterling out of the game. Or that Philippe Coutinho’s passing radar proved horribly awry.
With Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini excelling in defence, Liverpool created only two chances – a Martin Skrtel header directed narrowly wide from Steven Gerrard’s corner and a Coutinho header well saved by Tim Krul following Gerrard’s cross.
In Daniel Sturridge’s continued absence through injury Rodgers could surely do worse than experiment with pairing Balotelli alongside his compatriot, Fabio Borini. Liverpool’s attacking menace increased after he finally stepped off the bench. “We’ve lost goals,” acknowledged Rodgers. “We scored 101 last season. Take away nearly 80% of that [Suárez and Sturridge], introduce lots of new players and it can become difficult. But the wee bit of adversity you go through makes you stronger when you come out the other end.”
Man of the match Mehdi Abeid (Newcastle United)
