‘A lot of problems’ - Arne Slot praises Newcastle United for what they did v Liverpool

Liverpool twice had to come from behind on Tyneside before Fabian Schar’s late strike rescued a point for Newcastle United. Both sides gave as good as they got during a fiery 90 minutes in what was a brilliant advert for Premier League football.

The Magpies headed into the break with a deserved 1-0 lead after Alexander Isak’s stunning opener before Liverpool, inspired by Mohamed Salah, stepped up a gear in the second period to almost silence a 52,000 strong crowd at St James’ Park. Speaking post-match, Slot revealed that his side struggled to cope with Newcastle United’s ‘aggressive’ play in the first period and that Newcastle’s intensity almost proved too much for his side to deal with:

“I think in general in the second half we played much, much better than in the first-half.” Slot admitted. “In the first-half we had a lot of problems with their intensity and their aggressive playing style without the ball - aggressive in a good way. We tried to cope with it but every time we touched them we got a yellow so that doesn’t really help for us to be intense as well.

“In fairness to them, they were more intense than us, they forced us into too many mistakes so it wasn’t that difficult for us to be better in the second half with the ball. That’s what we were.

“Maybe it was difficult for them to keep up that intensity from the first 45 minutes and as a result of all these things we dominated the second half.”

That point leaves Newcastle United in 10th place in the Premier League table with a clash against Brentford, who were defeated 3-1 away at Aston Villa, to come on Saturday afternoon. The Reds, meanwhile, drop points in the league for the first time since the end of October and have seen their lead at the top of the table cut to seven points following Chelsea’s convincing win over Southampton and Arsenal’s triumph over Manchester United.