Anthony Gordon identifies what Newcastle now need to do to beat top teams

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Anthony Gordon was arguably Newcastle United’s best player in the shocking defeat to Liverpool yesterday.

Former Everton man Anthony Gordon put Newcastle into an early lead at St James’ Park yesterday after pouncing on a Trent Alexander-Arnold error and slotting the ball through the legs of Liverpool goalkeeper Allison.

The mistake from Alexander-Arnold was likely down to the fact that he was walking on very thin ice having just escaped a red card and Gordon was relentlessly running at him because he knew Trent couldn’t afford to challenge him in case he ended up being sent off.

Anthony Gordon was superb for Newcastle yesterday

It was a battle that raged for most of the game and one that Gordon won. In fact, the 22-year-old was probably the best player on the pitch for Newcastle along with Sandro Tonali. Strange then that both were substituted by Eddie Howe.

Speaking to NUFC TV after the game Gordon admitted that he’s feeling really good, “mentally, physically and emotionally”, but still feels there’s work to be done.

“We played really well, we created the chances but we just weren’t clinical enough,” said Gordon. “And that’s what’s going to separate us from the top teams and that’s where we need to push and focus on improving because if we can do that we can beat anyone.”

Not being clinical does seem to be a repeated critique at full time, usually by Eddie Howe. It’s definitely something that needs to be worked on.

There are some similarities to last season and that turned out ok

Although, last season was the same. We got off to a slow start and our decision making in the final third was shocking, but we soon got into a rhythm and things got better. We’ve got the same amount of points now as we did at this stage last year, but the big difference this time is the level of opposition we’ve played.

All three of the Premier League opponents we’ve faced so far beat us last year and we’ve improved massively on two of the three results, albeit with just one win.

If Eddie Howe can get the lads to start making the right decisions in the final third and being more clinical in front of goal, as Gordon said, we can beat anyone.