Opinion

First, I’m going to double down on the views expressed in my instant assessment of the Liverpool v Newcastle United match at Anfield. They were filed about five minutes after full-time, so not exactly the product of rumination and reflection.

In the first half hour we made Liverpool look second-best all over the pitch: movement, athleticism, territory, creativity. You name it, we were better than the Premier League champions.

Unfortunately, unlike at Wembley last March, that was as good as it got.

Thanks in no small part to Ekitike and Wirtz, megabucks transfers on megabucks wages, Merseyside’s second club undid us with alarming ease. Even though their former star man Salah contributed almost nowt, they were in the end comfortable winners.

Other factors in our defeat? A third hard game in seven days, a growing injury list and, of course, the absence of a Swedish striker who had spearheaded our success last season.

The game was increasingly depressing from about 40 minutes in, as we ran out of gas just as Liverpool belatedly found a way to cope with three wide forwards running hard at their ponderous defence.

Some fans wanted us to sit back...