Szoboszlai's Penalty Buys Iraola Time, Not Answers

Twelve months earlier at St James' Park, Rio Ngumoha's stoppage-time winner had Liverpool's away end bouncing. This time the same fixture produced a strikingly different mood. Dominik Szoboszlai's 99th-minute penalty pulled Liverpool level for a 2-2 draw on the opening weekend of 2026-27, but there was no wild celebration to match last year's, only the quiet relief of a team that had avoided losing rather than one that had won. That gap between last season's joy and this season's exhale says a lot about where Andoni Iraola's project currently sits.

Newcastle led twice in a hostile St James' Park before goals from Cody Gakpo and Szoboszlai dragged Liverpool back into the contest. Iraola insisted his players had earned better than a defeat. "It's probably not the result you want when you come in before the game but we definitely deserve this point and even more," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. Had they lost, it would have been Liverpool's first opening-weekend defeat since the 2012-13 campaign, so the draw counts as a result salvaged rather than a platform built. Salvaging is not the same as improving, though, and much of what unfolded on Tyneside pointed to problems still unresolved.

A point that flattered no one

Working the game for 5 Live, former Scotland winger Pat Nevin did not sugarcoat his assessment. Liverpool were being tipped for a top-four finish "at least," he said, yet "didn't look like a top four team" on the day, pointing to "a definite lack of creativity" and arguing that Iraola needs to unlock more from Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, neither of whom impressed against Newcastle. Iraola's own reading, delivered a day later, was gentler: he said he had "liked a lot of the things" his players produced, singling out the impact of his substitutes and the physical endurance shown late on. Neither view cancels the other out. A side can keep fighting to the last minute and still lack the sharpness its recruitment budget was supposed to buy.

Isak and Wirtz still waiting to click

Isak's return to his old ground supplied the afternoon's sharpest subplot. Signed away from Newcastle in a protracted move completed last September, the Swede heard jeers from home fans every time the ball reached him. He got through 28 touches and looked visibly up for the contest, but spurned a clear second-half opening of the kind he used to finish routinely in black and white. Wirtz, for his part, began well but was withdrawn shortly after Newcastle's Joe Willock made it 2-1. Both players cost nine-figure fees last summer, and neither has yet delivered the cohesion those price tags implied. Iraola's window to fix that is measured in weeks, not months, before a congested fixture list stops offering forgiveness.

The bench Iraola can't yet trust

Squad depth was the other recurring theme, visible in who Iraola had left to call upon. Once Victor Munoz and Alexis Mac Allister entered the game in the 63rd minute, his remaining options were Giorgi Mamardashvili, Ronald Araujo, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas, Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Lewis Koumas - a group built for cover more than for changing a match. Munoz repaid the faith shown in him on his Liverpool debut, replacing Ngumoha and winning the penalty Szoboszlai converted. Ngumoha himself, who turns eighteen next week, had been asked to play on the right and could not get going there before being substituted just past the hour mark. He has spent his youth career almost exclusively on the left, and Iraola's ambition for wingers comfortable on either side remains, for now, more theory than settled reality.

Nine goals from the counter

Defensively, little was new. Both full-backs, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, struggled through a difficult afternoon, and Liverpool were opened up on the counter for both goals they conceded. Iraola's answer, dropping Mac Allister in front of the back four once Willock had put Newcastle 2-1 ahead, came only after the damage was done, and it exposed the lack of a specialist holding midfielder in his starting XI. The figures quoted after the match were stark: since the start of last season, Liverpool have shipped more fast-break goals in all competitions than any other Premier League club, nine in total. That statistic did not begin at St James' Park, and nothing about this performance suggested it has been solved either.

The Gakpo conundrum

The player most responsible for rescuing the point is, ironically, the one whose Liverpool future looks shakiest. Gakpo finished his chance with real quality and was widely regarded as Liverpool's outstanding performer. Even so, his role could be redrawn before the transfer window shuts. Liverpool have been linked with Paris St-Germain duo Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye, and have already seen two bids turned down for Brighton's Yankuba Minteh. Sign two more forwards and Gakpo may be moved on - an odd reward for outperforming two nine-figure recruits on the day it mattered most.

What Szoboszlai's penalty actually bought

Szoboszlai left no doubt about the mentality that got Liverpool back into the game. "We will never give up. I can guarantee you that," he told Sky Sports, crediting every substitute with making "an impact as well." Nobody watching would question that appetite. What remains open to question is whether appetite alone can paper over a defence short of protection and an attack still searching for rhythm. Iraola begins his Liverpool tenure with the unbeaten record intact rather than a loss to explain away. That, more than anything else, is what the point was worth: not proof the problems are fixed, but confirmation they have not yet cost him a result.

Research: This article uses the archived evidence supplied for this story. Story inspiration: BBC Sport's original report.