Newcastle United began 2024 as they ended 2023 following defeat to Liverpool.
While losing at Anfield – particularly this season – is no great shame, the manner in which Newcastle fell to their fifth defeat in the last six Premier League games was disappointing.
Though a 4-2 scoreline doesn’t look too bad on paper, Jurgen Klopp’s side were remarkably wasteful in front of goal and even missed a penalty.
In fact, such was the quality of their chances, the Reds amassed the highest ever xG (expected goals) total in a Premier League game recorded in history, standing at 7.27 compared to Newcastle’s 0.59.
Eddie Howe’s side can have few arguments about the result but that does not mean the game was without its controversial moments. Indeed, Diogo Jota has been accused of diving to win Liverpool their second spot-kick of the evening.
Unsurprisingly, Howe was quizzed on the matter after the game.
Liverpool 4-2 Newcastle: Eddie Howe cannot understand what happened to his team
Speaking to BBC Sport after the game, Howe admitted he could not understand how Liverpool were awarded their two penalties, albeit he did concede the home side played very well.
“I thought Liverpool played very well. It was a really tough game for us,” he said at 22:23 on 01/01/2023.
“I’m still confused over the penalties we conceded. The second one especially didn’t look like a penalty. We had one before that [not given], that was probably the turning point.
“We’re battling to get our best levels back. The effort and determination was there. As long as we continue to see that we’ll be fine.
“The most important thing is we’re fighting. We’re missing a lot of players, we’ve had a lot of tough fixtures in a congested December.”
Eddie Howe: Newcastle boss needs a big improvement
Though Howe isn’t thought to be under any pressure from above at this stage, there’s little doubt things need to improve.
Newcastle remain with just two wins away from all season across all competitions and the prospect of that continuing against Sunderland on Saturday is extremely worrying.
Lose that and the season really will have gone off the rails.
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