Liverpool 4 - 1 Newcastle: Transfer Window Haunts The Toon

After a dominant start that resulted in Anthony Gordon giving Newcastle a well deserved lead, two goals in two minutes from Hugo Ekitike changed the mood of the game. Newcastle's heads slumped and Liverpool and their fans were buoyant again.

The Harsh Truth

Eddie Howe can point to injuries for the defeat and especially to Bruno and Jo who, despite Newcastle controlling the game until Liverpool equalised, were still missed against a top quality Liverpool midfield.

However starting without Wissa and Woltemade, with Eddie deciding Gordon was the best ST to potentially expose Liverppol's CB;s, is the real telling factor and the biggest concern to Eddie and the SJP hierarchy.

Despite Wissa and Woltemade's goals, with Big Nick now eleven games without scoring, having £125M worth of ST's sitting on the bench is absolutely not something Newcastle can afford either financially or in a starting eleven.

The rumour in the summer was that Liverpool would back off signing our top target Ekitike if we agreed to part with Isak. Whether that rumour was true or not the worst case scenario was that Liverpool would end up with both, and that is exactly how it turned out.

Great ST's can change games in an instant. Isak did that.

And that's what Ekitike did last night.

As it stands, neither Woltemade or Wissa are close to Ekitike. This lad has skill, aggression, pace, aerial ability and a poacher's instinct supreme. And, he is young enough to get even better.

Put it this way; if Wissa or Woltemade had been up front for Liverpool and Ekitike in the black and white of Newcastle that 4-1 scoreline might have been reversed.

Add in £115M Florian Wirtz, now showing why he was lauded as one of the best mids in the world, and compare him to £40M Jacob Ramsey and the difference in quality Liverpool have added is stark.

Anthony Elanga at £55M has added little and although Malik Thiaw has been good value at £35M his previous reputation for making defensive mistakes has come to the fore recently. He made bad errors last night that led to two of the goals.

The summer transfer window was expected to be pivotal in that we had money to spend and that the first eleven and squad would be significantly improved.

An argument can be justified that, without Isak, the first eleven is weaker and the squad quality only marginally improved.

That is the harsh truth of the summer transfer window.

Ruthless Decisions Need To Be Made

Eddie Howe is yet again being heavily criticised by a section of fans.

But, IMO, the biggest criticism should be directed at whoever planned the summer transfer strategy. Targeting players who it was obvious would be in the sights of the Big 6 and expecting to compete and win their signatures was a huge mistake.

Hanging on to Isak and prolonging the transfer saga to Liverpool was also a big mistake that led to late ST signings at inflated prices. Inflated prices that can also be levelled at Elanga and Ramsey.

£145M was spent on Premier League players that none of the Big 6 were interested in - who was behind targeting those players?

Why, after plenty of time to scout and evaluate, did we fail to identify and sign any of the players from overseas leagues who have done well in the PL this season?

IMO Eddie Howe needs to start thinking deeply about how he wants to shape his squad for next season. If he doesn't totally believe that any of the new signings are going to get up to the level he wants - they need to be sold.

The progression of previous seasons has not been repeated this season.

That is THE biggest reason why our PL form especially is way below par.

A bad workman shouldn't blame his tools - but if some of them are blunt he needs to sharpen them or buy new ones.

That's exactly what Eddie needs to do with this squad.

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