Newcastle United v Liverpool preview ahead of today’s St James’ Park match

Welcome to the Newcastle United v Liverpool preview.

Sunday 23 August and a 4.30pm kick-off.

Newcastle United kick off their 26/27 season on Sunday afternoon looking to draw a line under a fairly traumatic summer that has seen a change of manager, a number of high profile departures, a complete overhaul of the first team and the loss of one of the most influential men in our entire history.

On a more positive note, we were able to witness Dan Burn’s contribution to England’s best performance in a world cup for sixty years.

This will be my thirtieth consecutive season of following every NUFC game (thankfully being just too young to fully understand the devastation of 1996) and we’re kicking things off with an absolutely iconic fixture live on Sky Sports. Liverpool were lucky last season to escape St James’ Park with all three points despite playing against ten men for most of the match and the Toon Army would love nothing more than revenge this weekend as we look to start the season in style.

With ‘Wor Flags’ hosting their biggest ever display and both teams paying homage to an absolute legend, this promises to be an emotional day for everyone concerned, factor in Isak’s return to what promises to be a cauldron for him and the atmosphere should be absolutely electric, especially with the late kick-off allowing for some additional liquid refreshment on what could be a truly triumphant day for Toon Army.

Form

Newcastle’s pre-season has been something of a mixed bag. Eddie Howe led us to a win over Darlington, a draw with Gateshead and a defeat to Bristol City before leaving the club with our best wishes having been the most successful NUFC manager since Joe Harvey. Jaissle took over and led us to a victory away at Valencia and a defeat against Everton before a disappointing weekend double-header at St James Park saw us lose against Leverkusen and draw with Strasbourg before they beat us on penalties.

Liverpool warmed-up for this one with an equally hit and miss pre-season. Wins came against the Mackems, Wrexham and Como but they lost to both Leeds and Monaco.

Last time out

Newcastle hosted Strasbourg last Sunday and went into the half-time break 1-0 up thanks to Osula’s second goal of pre-season. Unfortunately, a second-half equaliser meant the match would be decided via the dreaded penalty shootout. Despite well-taken efforts from both Neave and Toure and two saves from Jaouen, United went down 3-2 to their French opponents and had to be content with two home defeats in two days.

Liverpool’s last friendly of pre-season was a fairly comfortable home win over Serie A side Como. The reds went 2-0 up in the first half and hung on for a routine victory.

Stat attack!

-The Toon have found the net six times in their last three home matches against the reds.

-NUFC have failed to beat Liverpool in the last nine matches between the sides at St James’ Park, drawing three and losing six.

– Newcastle United have beaten Liverpool on ten Premier League occasions on Tyneside with the most recent one coming in 2015

Memorable match

Who said Kenny Dalglish never entertained the Toon Army? In 2012, Alan Pardew’s NUFC were battling for a place in the top four and welcomed Dalglish’s Liverpool side to fortress St James’ on April Fools Day. Our opponents would end up being rightfully ridiculed on a hilarious afternoon where everything went right for the black and whites.

Former hero Andy Carroll was jeered from the off and hardly helped his cause with a ludicrous dive to try and win an early penalty. This led to a cacophony of boos and taunts for the rest of his match (which didn’t last the full ninety minutes, more on that later). With the atmosphere now cranked up and the St James’ becoming something of a bear pit for the visiting players, Newcastle took the lead at the perfect time when Ben Arfa twisted and turned before crossing to the back post for Papiss Demba Cisse to bury a diving header across the face of goal and in off the post to send fifty-thousand fans delirious. The Senegal striker had made a superb start to life on Tyneside and this was his sixth goal in his first seven games.

Liverpool looked punch drunk after suffering such a bruising opening twenty minutes and another former-favourite was now in for a torrid time from Toon fans, Jose Enrique had slated the club when leaving at the start of the season claiming United would never compete for the top six. Ironically this victory would ensure NUFC were well on course for a top-six finish as they went a whopping eleven points clear of Liverpool who were languishing in eighth having won only two Premier League matches since the turn of the year.

There was no let-up for Liverpool throughout the afternoon as the Toon kept up relentless attacking pressure and Mike Williamson was desperately unlucky to see a header bounce back off the post at the start of the second-half. The second, and killer, goal would come to pass just before the hour when great work from Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye and Demba Ba allowed Papiss Cisse the chance to round the ‘keeper and squeeze the ball past a defender on the line to end the game as a contest against a Liverpool side who were never at the races.

With the Toon Army having a whale of a time and Liverpool fans sloping towards the exits, there was still time for further humiliation for a number of Liverpool players who must have wished they could join their ‘fans’ in Level seven and quietly slip away. Firstly, Andy Carroll was subbed off to great hilarity as he was laughed and abused off the pitch by his former admirers and didn’t exactly help things by taking his shirt off, giving Kenny Dalglish a mouthful of abuse and storming down the tunnel (a la David Ginola when playing for Villa in 2001). With the crowd now in a state of heightened amusement, the Liverpool ‘keeper got into the act by being needlessly sent off, leading to Enrique having to don the gloves to even more hilarity and various chants reminding him which of two clubs was in the top six. Overall this was a highly enjoyable afternoon and one of the highlights of an incredible season that saw NUFC battle with the best teams in the league on the way to a fifth place finish. Final Score: Newcastle 2-0 Liverpool.

Played for both

Kevin Keegan will be celebrated by both sets of supporters this weekend as every seat in the stadium will contribute to a magnificent display courtesy of the excellent ‘Wor Flags’. An absolute legend as a player for both clubs, Wor Kev won seven major trophies at the reds including three first division titles, one European Cup, two UEFA cups and one FA Cup (unfortunately against United in 1974). At Newcastle United, he played for two seasons, helping the club achieve promotion to the top tier of English football before famously leaving in a helicopter after his testimonial against Liverpool. As a manager he almost pulled off the ultimate fairytale by taking NUFC from the bottom of division two (The Championship in today’s money) to second in the Premier League in the space of five wonderful years that saw us come heartbreakingly close to winning the whole thing. You could write an entire book on this man’s contribution to Newcastle United and not even begin to do him justice. The tributes to him outside St James’ Park in the days following his sad passing was a fitting reflection of the high-esteem he was held in the football world. Check out my own personal tribute to King Kev.

Danny Guthrie started his professional career in the academy at Liverpool and graduated to play in seven first-team games under Rafa Benitez, including a start away to Galatasaray in the Champions League. After stints on loan at Southampton and Bolton, Guthrie signed for Kevin Keegan in 2008 and was promptly labelled man of the match by our manager when making his debut away at Old Trafford on the opening day of the season. He spent four years on Tyneside, enduring the low of relegation in 2009 to the high of a top five Premier League finish in 2012. He was an integral part of our promotion from the Championship in 2010, netting five goals and providing thirteen assists as we finished top of the second tier.

Alexander Isak – I really should be writing about a club legend here. Sixty-two goals in one-hundred and nine overall appearances for NUFC including fifty-four in eighty-six Premier League games over a three year period is an incredible goalscoring record up there with the best of the best. Memorable strikes include giving us a Champions League lead in Paris, blasting home against Liverpool in a 3-3 draw and scoring twice in two minutes as we went goal crazy in a 6-1 win against Tottenham. His place in all of our hearts should have been assured for eternity when scoring the winning goal in the 2025 League Cup final. Unfortunately, his absolutely disgraceful behaviour when going on strike last summer will ensure he is thought of with nothing but disgust when mentioned amongst Toon followers. Thankfully his time at Liverpool has been blighted by injury and loss of form, if he does make the pitch this weekend, he could be in for a very rough ride indeed.

Managers

Matthias Jaissle: “I tried to not over think beforehand. I was aware of the challenge and among such a journey there will always be stones among the path, but we need to get rid of them. We need to see the opportunities, the chance in all these things. This is something we mentioned already, and I feel that the players are committed towards these challenges in the transition period right now. I’m really optimistic for the future. With the tributes, it’s already a special game. It will be an outstanding atmosphere. I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it so I can’t wait.”

Andoni Iraola: “I feel excited. I can feel it even in the atmosphere when you train with the players. You feel like this week is a little bit different. We’ve been preparing friendlies, we’ve been preparing for other opposition, but this smells different. I’m looking forward to being there on Sunday and feel the pressure and start a competition, that is what we like. I want to be a really good team. I want to use the good players that I have in the best way, so they give us the chance to fight for everything.”

Charity

Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.

For further info and/or to donate online go to Newcastle Foodbank

Prediction

This promises to be an absolute classic!

The first match of the season is always difficult to predict but when you factor in all of the emotion of such a special occasion, it really feels this one could go either way. The fact both teams have new managers and a host of new players means the two sets of supporters will be excited and anxious in equal measure. I’m going to sit on the fence here and predict a highly enjoyable score draw with the Toon going 1-0 down in the first half before scoring a wildly-celebrated late equaliser. Howay the Lads! Newcastle 1-1 Liverpool.

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