Newcastle United and Liverpool meet on Sunday.
The Premier League opener for both teams.
Liverpool finished on 60 points last season and Newcastle United 49 points.
Fair to say that the fanbases of both clubs felt the 2025/26 Premier League was a failure.
Newcastle United picking up 17 points less than they had in the 2024/25 campaign, Liverpool exceeding that with their own 24 points less total.
Both clubs with new managers now, Arne Slot sacked and Eddie Howe resigning.
Replaced by Andoni Iraola and Matthias Jaissle respectively.
Looking ahead to Sunday, a new stark reality emerges for me when it comes to Liverpool and Newcastle United.
Despite the disappointing season for Liverpool, I look at the two sets of players and hand on heart I can’t say that when combined, any Newcastle United player would currently get in the joint best starting eleven.
Not very long ago I would have made a case for any or all of Bruno Guimaraes, Lewis Hall, Sandro Tonali, Kieran Trippier, Anthony Gordon, Tino Livramento, Alexander Isak…
Isak, Trippier, Bruno, Tonali, Gordon are no longer with Newcastle United.
Livramento is still recovering from injury and won’t play on Sunday.
Lewis Hall is a class player but hasn’t looked himself in pre-season.
Not difficult to think that unfairly missing out on the England squad for the World Cup finals AND seeing Eddie Howe and most of the other best players leaving, has been a shocking double blow for the lifelong Newcastle United fan.
Easy to forget that Lewis Hall is still only 21 and now so much expectation on him as he is, arguably, the last great hope.
We all of course hope that new signings such as Toure, Bamba, Steur and Hornicek prove to have star quality. However, as of now they are all young inexperienced players and none of them have played a single minute of Premier League football.
It isn’t a case either of thinking that all of the existing Newcastle United players are rubbish, far from it. I believe that we have plenty of players who can contribute positively this season, such as Schar, Burn, Osula, Thiaw, Wissa, Barnes, Ramsey and others. Whilst I hope the likes of Woltemade and Elanga can prove doubters wrong and I am sure if they can stay fit, both Hall and Tino can get back in the groove as the season goes on.
However, reality is that at this moment, I could only really try and make a case for Malick Thiaw making a combined Liverpool and Newcastle United team ahead of Sunday.
This sums up the huge challenge in front of us all, not least Matthias Jaissle.
Amar Dedic is set to sign and we really need another few more to follow, players who can be first team contenders immediately.