United takeover waiting on Premier League – Ashley
UNITED GO DOWN AGAINST CHAMPIONS AFTER STORMING INTO FIRST-MINUTE LEAD – AS ASHLEY CALLS SQUAD TO OFFER THANKS ... AND VENT TAKEOVER FRUSTRATION
NEWCASTLE United’s season ended with a whimper following a 3-1 defeat against champions Liverpool at St James’ Park.
The Magpies took the lead after just 24 seconds through Dwight Gayle but Virgil van Dijk drew his side level with a looping header before half-time.
Divock Origi put his side in front before the hour mark and substitute Sadio Mane added the gloss late on as Newcastle failed to win any of their final six games of the season.
Here are five things we learned from the game.
Dwight Gayle has certainly staked his claim
Jonjo Shelvey catching the opposition’s defence napping with a stunning ball over the top to Gayle? It was like it was 2017 all over again at St James’ Park.
Newcastle raced into the lead with just 26 seconds on the clock after Shelvey took a quick free-kick, which Liverpool were not alive to, and Gayle finished calmly past Alisson.
It was the former Crystal Palace striker’s fourth goal of the season – all of which have come since football restarted last month. Gayle looks like a player who is benefiting from the trust of his manager and a run of starts in his favoured position.
Given how only Crystal Palace, Watford and Norwich have scored fewer goals in the Premier League this season, Newcastle will surely be in the market for another striker this summer but Gayle has certainly showed he has something.
But Liverpool’s bench is a reminder of gulf in class
Steve Bruce will have been a little relieved that Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Mane were not named in Liverpool’s starting lineup.
But it says it all about the quality that Jurgen Klopp has in reserve that
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain set up Van Dijk’s equaliser and Origi later put his side in front at St James’ Park.
The Belgian found the back of the net just before the hour mark, as Salah, Firmino and Mane were all preparing to come on, and Newcastle struggled to muster a response.
Within minutes of coming on, Salah hit the post and Liverpool’s front three caused Newcastle so many problems, with Mane scoring the champions’ stunning late third.
It was hardly needed, but this was another reminder to Newcastle’s prospective owners of the gulf in quality between these two sides.
Steve McManaman strikes a better note
You feared the worst when Steve McManaman started his pre-match analysis by again stating Newcastle have had a ‘really good season’ – a phrase which irked supporters when he said it during the 5-0 hammering against Man City earlier this month.
The former Liverpool winger has taken note of the criticism he received and admitted he could understand why fans ‘get angry when people say they’ve had a good season or Steve Bruce has done really well because you feel for them.’
“They need investment, big
investment, to get back to where they want to be and with the history they’ve got, the ground they have, the atmosphere that they can have in this wonderful stadium, you understand why they want to play better football, you understand that they want to get back to the days when Alan
Shearer was here and
Ginola and things like that and playing that style of football,” he told
BT Sport.
You just hope that other national pundits will follow suit and do their homework next season just as
McManaman, belatedly, has.
Loanees all get their chance but will any be kept on? For just the second time during the restart, all three of Newcastle’s loanees started a Premier League game together. With five of Newcastle’s recognised centre-backs injured, Danny Rose filled in at centre-back while Valentino Lazaro came into the side at right wing-back. Nabil Bentaleb, who has started five games this month, kept his place as a sitting midfielder alongside Jonjo Shelvey before hobbling off in the second half while Rose was hooked late on as Bruce gave Kell Watts his debut. The loanees have had mixed spells on Tyneside – Bentaleb in particular has underwhelmed – so it will be interesting to see if the Magpies opt to sign any of the trio when Bruce sits down with managing director Lee Charnley in the coming days.
Matty Longstaff misses out through injury but is it goodbye?
The younger Longstaff brother missed the visit of the champions with a thigh injury as he enters the final days of his current deal with Newcastle.
Much has been made of Longstaff’s wage demands but game time will also be another huge consideration for the midfielder, who has not started a league game since January.
Bruce may retain hope that Longstaff will be among those returning for pre-season testing next month, but with time running out, you just wonder whether the 20-year-old might have already played his last game for the Magpies.