Stoppage time was drawing to a close when Alan Pardew permitted himself a little smile and discreetly pumped a fist. Only a fortnight ago anyone seeking the perfect definition of the term “dead man walking” needed look no further than Newcastle United’s manager but four successive victories – three in the Premier League – have changed his landscape beyond recognition.
Much more of this and, instead of being sacked by Mike Ashley, Pardew will be challenging for another manager of the year award. He certainly succeeded in outwitting his old friend Brendan Rodgers – once his youth coach at Reading – on an afternoon when Ayoze Pérez’s winning goal emphasised Liverpool’s disappointing inability to cope with Newcastle’s formidably fleet footed counterattacking.
Newcastle’s new-look, beautifully calibrated, 4-3-3 formation was clearly suiting them and when Gabriel Obertan accelerated down the right before slipping the ball to Moussa Sissoko they might have won a penalty. Caught on the ankle by Joe Allen as he shaped to shoot, Sissoko appealed to the referee but Andre Marriner was not convinced. The good news for Pardew was that Newcastle’s players were clearly buying into his gameplan.
Mehdi Abeid, especially, impressed in midfield. While Abeid contributed such vital interceptions as well as delivering decent dead balls the team’s collective resolve was epitomised when Daryl Janmaat sprinted several yards to steal the ball from the onrushing Jordan Henderson with a tremendous tackle.
The loss of Obertan’s pace down the right, after something appeared to go in a hip, was a blow to Pardew but meant Liverpool had to contend with Rolando Aarons.
The England Under-20s left-winger worried Rodgers’s defence following his introduction from the bench but, for all their and fight and pace suffused counterattacking flair, Newcastle had no cause for complacency.
They received a reminder of their vulnerability as Steven Gerrard whipped in a corner and Martin Skrtel zoomed into the area before directing a formidably powerful header narrowly wide.
It proved a rare first-half visiting attack. Indeed by then a strangely incoherent Liverpool would have been behind had Glen Johnson not cleared Papiss Cissé’s angled six-yard shot off the line with Simon Mignolet awol.
Restored to a deeper, more central role than in recent months, Sissoko looks a midfielder reborn. His fine dribble late in the first half resulted in a slightly desperate, correctly booked, challenge from Skrtel but Cissé squandered the subsequent free-kick, ballooning the ball over Mignolet’s bar.
At the other end Tim Krul had probably not expected to be so underemployed but, with Rodgers’s midfield malfunctioning, Mario Balotelli’s frequently creditable effort off the ball proved forlorn. Perhaps significantly, Balotelli’s principal first-half contribution was to offer Johnson an apparent lecture on tactics during the interruption to play while the medics worked on Obertan.
With Newcastle keeping it tight and defending deep before breaking at speed, Liverpool seemed nonplussed. Quite apart from their passing game being frequently suffocated at source, Rodgers’s players had the additional anxiety of being caught cold on the counterattack. Apparently unsure how to react they were reduced to looking distinctly ordinary and, sometimes, downright untidy.
Raheem Sterling cannot have expected to find himself shackled so comprehensively by Paul Dummett.
Shafts of sunshine for the Reds were few and far between, although Balotelli did test Krul courtesy of a deceptively swerving free-kick early in the second half.
The Italian was evidently warming up as, shortly afterwards, Balotelli defied Steven Taylor’s tight marking by manoeuvring himself into sufficient space to somehow unleash a curling shot that Krul prevented from creeping just inside a post.
If fluency was still largely absent from Liverpool’s play they at least shifted from reactive to much more proactive mode. Soon Philippe Coutinho forced the afternoon’s most difficult save with Krul doing well to keep his header from Gerrard’s cross out.
Fully getting into things Balotelli whipped the ball away from Abeid’s toes only to be hacked down by a brutal tackle from Janmaat who, quite rightly, saw yellow. Seconds later Abeid, determined to atone, felled Balotelli who, sensibly, refrained from rising to the provocation.
With tempers rising, Fabio Borini, on for Allen, shot fractionally wide. It was another substitute though who actually scored. Ayoze Pérez, signed from Tenerife in the summer was supposed to spend most of his season in Peter Beardsley’s development squad but instead the 21-year-old striker has found himself fast-tracked.
Once Cissé was forced off by pain caused by screws inserted in his knee during springtime surgery, Pérez stepped off the bench. It did not take him long to score his second winner in two games, after last Sunday’s goal at Tottenham.
Pouncing on Alberto Moreno’s failure to clear Sissoko’s ball, Pérez intervened to incisive effect, hooking the ball home from six yards. He very nearly created a second for Rémy Cabella after playing a pacy one-two with his fellow substitute but Mignolet rescued Liverpool, saving brilliantly with his legs.
There was still time for Pérez – who else? – to dispossess Gerrard as Liverpool menaced in the dying seconds.
