Confidence isn’t high at Newcastle ahead of Liverpool’s trip to St James’ Park, but Anthony Gordon’s speed could be a potent weapon on Wednesday.
The Reds make the midweek trip to the Magpies for another key game in their Premier League title charge.
Eddie Howe’s side aren’t setting the world alight this season, but away clashes at Newcastle are rarely easy, especially under the lights.
Another Liverpool win here would be significant as they continue deflating their rivals’ hopes.
Here, This Anfield’s Henry Jackson spoke to Newcastle fan Dave Black (@cm9798) to hear about Newcastle‘s season to date, his thoughts on Arne Slot and much more.
How happy are you with Newcastle’s season so far?
Probably about a seven-out-of-10.
If you don’t go into detail, we are in the mix for the European places and in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, which is about as good as we could expect.
Under the bonnet, though, the performances have been quite poor a lot of the time and results have often masked our deficiencies.
After a summer of minimal movement, there’s a lot of frustration around.
Is Eddie Howe under any pressure?
It’s always peaks and troughs up here.
Before the latest international break, Howe seemed to have found a good balance again. Beating Arsenal and Nottingham Forest back-to-back (plus Chelsea in the cup) had steadied the ship.
It’s been very poor in the two games since, however, and we managed an xG of 0.02 away at Palace, which is quite damning whether you believe in xG or not.
But there is a feeling that he has enough credit in the bank and enough sympathy for him due to the FFP rules hindering our transfer progress.
Could anybody else get more out of some quite average players in certain positions? I am not so sure.
Who has played well and who has struggled for Newcastle?
Lewis Hall has come into his own at left back and now has full England honours.
Dan Burn has done well after being heavily criticised at times last season, but he is deputising well for the long term stricken Sven Botman.
All of the ‘blue chip’ players have been patchy at best.
Anthony Gordon hasn’t been nearly as good and the captaincy is weighing heavy on Bruno Guimaraes. Alexander Isak has struggled for consistency and Callum Wilson made his latest comeback last week.
Sandro Tonali is back from his ban and has shown a lot of promise at times, but it remains tricky to get him and Bruno in the same team effectively.
How do you assess Arne Slot’s start to life at Liverpool?
Absolutely serene. Slot is like a pragmatic Jurgen Klopp.
I really thought there would be a drop-off, but he has tightened up the defence and the attack is somehow more efficient.
Even if Man City hadn’t fallen off a cliff, they would be second at best.
Are you backing the Reds to win the title?
I wouldn’t say it’s quite over – I am not over 1995/96! But, if you can navigate December without too many blemishes it looks good for Liverpool.
What are your best and worst memories of this fixture?
The two 4-3 defeats at Anfield in the 1990s have been well documented, but the home game has been feast or famine.
I saw us lose 6-0 to you once and I think there was a 5-1 in there in the Joe Kinnear era, too.
We do sneak the occasional win and there was a 2-0 in 2012 where Jose Enrique ended up in goal and Kenny Dalglish was the manager, which was quite cathartic.
Looking ahead to Wednesday, where will the key battles take place?
I think we will approach this the way we did Arsenal and defend deep and try and counter on you.
Your right/our left will be interesting, obviously Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold for you, and we tend to use Joelinton and Joe Willock on that side with Hall.
Isak came off injured on Saturday, so it might be Gordon through the middle – his pace against your centre-backs is an avenue to watch.
What’s your prediction?
I think we’ll dig in for a draw.
We don’t score many these days, so I don’t think we are in for a thriller.
