Newcastle United Vs Liverpool [2-3] Premier League 2025/2026: How Aerial Duels & Defensive Errors Shaped The Game – Tactical Analysis

The Premier League witnessed one of the most entertaining games of the season so far, with Liverpool securing a crucial last-minute win against Newcastle United at St. James Park after a continuous chase that lasted throughout the game and deep into stoppage time.

Liverpool secured their second win of the season, following their initial victory against Bournemouth, which allows them to continue progressing and improving their weaknesses with less pressure, despite criticism regarding their performance against Newcastle.

It is also very beneficial to gain all 3 points this weekend, given that their potential title rivals, including Manchester City, Manchester United, and Chelsea, all failed to collect six points from the two initial games.

It is true that the value of these two wins cannot be fully appreciated at the moment, but their importance will certainly matter at the end of the season, when each point can be the difference between Premier League Champion and runner-up.

Newcastles loss was painful and did not really reflect what this team deserved, as they put on a powerful performance against a tough opponent.

Some individual mistakes, such as the red card, punished Newcastle despite their late comeback in the match and their ability to score two goals to equalise the score.

Attacking-wise, Newcastle were good enough to exploit Liverpool’s defensive mistakes, especially in the air and during set-pieces, and that’s how they succeeded in scoring their two goals.

However, that was not enough for them to avoid the loss.

They failed to resist Liverpool’s last-minute attempts and, due to a marking issue, allowed 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha to score the decisive goal.

In this Newcastle vs Liverpool tactical analysis, the focus will be centred on Newcastle Uniteds tactics under Eddie Howe and how he exploited their superiority in aerial duels in open play and during set pieces.

The analysis will also shed light on Liverpool style of play under Arne Slot tactics, including efficient shooting from distance and finishing accuracy, as these were the aspects that ultimately made the difference for the Reds.

Newcastle Vs Liverpool Formations

Eddie Howe started the match in a 4-3-3 formation, with Nick Pope as a goalkeeper, Fabian Schär and Dan Burn as centre-backs, Kieran Trippier as a right-back, and Tino Livramento as a left-back.

The midfield consisted of Sandro Tonali as a defensive midfielder, Joelinton and Bruno Guimarães as central midfielders, with Harvey Barnes and the new signing, Anthony Elanga, playing on both wings.

For the striker role, Alexander Isak has not participated in the match mainly due to issues with the club regarding his potential transfer move, which has obliged Howe to rely on an alternative for the seasons opening games.

Opting for Anthony Gordon was Howe’s best possible alternative for now.

Although Gordon is mainly a winger, he has been used as a striker so far this season.

That said, Newcastle will have to seriously consider either resolving the complicated situation with their main striker, Isak, or anticipating the end of the transfer window and aiming to buy one of the available strikers in the market to provide a more natural solution in the striker role.

In fact, Newcastle can even make a more economical and strategic choice by relying on their striker, William Osula, and giving him more playing time to gain confidence and potentially become the team’s main striker.

He may possess the necessary abilities to replace Isak over time.

Being a natural striker would also help him become even more reliable than Gordon for that position, with Gordon becoming the second striker option or moving back to one of the wings.

On the other hand, Arne Slot chose to start the match with the 4-2-3-1 formation using Alisson Becker as a goalkeeper, Ibrahima Konaté and Virgil van Dijk as centre-back, Dominik Szoboszlai as a right-back as he was preferred over Wataru Endo, Joe Gomez, and Curtis Jones mainly thanks to Szoboszlai’s more consistent teamwork in both the attacking and the defensive phases, knowing that Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley were not yet fit to play the game.

On the left side, Slot opted for Milos Kerkez instead of Andy Robertson, and this choice was criticised mainly because Kerkez’s performance was not convincing enough in both Liverpool games.

This suggests that Robertson’s experience would have been more useful to Liverpool, especially in the defensive phase.

The midfield consisted of Ryan Gravenberch and Jones as central midfielders, with the German Florian Wirtz, playing as an advanced playmaker, and Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo as wingers.

At the same time, the main striker was Hugo Ekitike, the new signing from Eintracht Frankfurt.

Newcastle Vs Liverpool Lineups

Newcastle United Exploitation Of Aerial Duels In Open Play & Set-Pieces

Newcastle’s reliance on crossing and search for aerial duels to punish Liverpool’s defence was recurring in this match, with 20 attempted crosses for the Toon compared to 10 for the Reds.

As soon as Newcastle got the chance to advance after resisting Liverpool’s high-pressing attempts, they relied on ball circulation towards both wings, but noticed that Liverpool was securing their defensive lines well.

This allowed N