Liverpool rescue late point at Newcastle | Neville: Arsenal should win the league by a street

0:00Hello everybody, summer is over and the Gary Neville podcast is back.

0:06Peter Drury:It should be renamed. What?

0:08Gary Neville:The Gary Neville and Peter Drury podcast. No, no, no.

0:10Peter Drury:I'm just here to tee it up for you. Neville and Drury. I'm here to tee it up for you.

0:14Gary Neville:Or Neville and Drury. Yeah, well, that's nearer than Mark. Or Neville Drury.

0:19Peter Drury:Drury Neville. Anyhow, what it hasn't been is a Drury first weekend of the Premier League, has it? I mean, it's been a bit crazy. there have been some strange results at least relative to expectation and there's been a melodramatic game here at St James' Park which of course has been played within a sort of Kevin Keegan flavoured day Gary and a 2-2 draw is kind of him all over and it was a really wonderful football match

0:48Gary Neville:It was good to watch end to end I think both teams quality wise in the final third Liverpool will be really disappointed I think but from Newcastle's perspective I was really downbeat on Newcastle just generally just in the last few weeks losing obviously their manager who's been a brilliant manager up here Eddie Howe bringing Silverware a couple of years ago getting into the Champions League signing really good characters but losing Trippier, losing Gimaraish, losing Tenali, losing Gordon obviously Joe Linton I think was sat behind us today so he wasn't out there as well and you're thinking how are they going to cope?

1:29Gary Neville:You know, you can lose a manager but then to lose your manager and your engine room of your team I was thinking that it could be a really challenging season. Look, it still may be. It's very early on. But I think that I'll have to learn to pronounce it. Is it Gaisler? Correct. I'm doing pretty well, aren't I? Yeah, Gaisler. I think if you look at that today for him, he'll be encouraged. I thought he managed the game well. I thought he brought substitutions on at the right time. I thought the players that he started with, Sturr and Lewis Miley in midfield, such a young midfield. I think one of them 18, the other 20.

2:06Gary Neville:So you're thinking about that against Chobaslai, against Gravenberge, against Verts in there, and you're thinking they're going to get pulled apart. But the job that Visser did, and those two defensively, was fantastic. The back four for Newcastle held together. The front players were a real threat on the counter-attack, Asula, Alanga and Barnes. Yeah, so everything that the new manager could have asked for that he got. And the start to the game was obviously most important. That first 10, 15 minutes, you felt like Newcastle needed to score for two reasons. One, for the crowd to give them a boost and make them sort of realise, actually, you know, we're not going to have a disappointing season, but also for the players to give them that encouragement that they can compete in the game and get that first step on the ladder.

2:46Gary Neville:Because I think if Liverpool go ahead, it could have easily dipped quite quickly. so yeah I thought it was a really committed performance today and I think you mentioned three words in the commentary that Isler wants from his players and that's trust, respect and commitment, well I said trust and respect comes from working together over a period of time or being together over a period of time but that will be a good start to that sort of first two but then commitment, that's the one thing that has to be it's a non-negotiable in anything that you do in life let alone playing a football team in front of this crowd, you've got to run around in the black and white shirt.

3:19Gary Neville:You've got to have passion, a love for the game. I'm going to bring Kevin Keegan's name into it early and we'll discuss him at the end. But Kevin Keegan's biggest, I played under Kevin for England for two years, is enthusiasm. And I think I'm enthusiastic about football and when I get up in the morning I go for it. But I'll tell you what, you can times that by 100 when you meet Kevin Keegan. His enthusiasm, his infectiousness, his ability just to make everybody feel positive every single minute of every day. That's what this crowd needs. and today those players have done really well for Newcastle and they'll feel a lot better leaving.

3:52Gary Neville:Look, they've had a bit of a killer at the end. We'll come on to that, I'm sure. But they'll feel quite positive about what they've seen today because I think a lot of them will have been thinking we're going to get a bit of a hiding. I was expecting Liverpool to win this game comfortably, to be fair, before. So, yeah, I think Newcastle United supporters, the coach, the ownership that were probably a little bit nervous about what might happen and the executive team and sporting directors who are thinking, if this goes wrong we could be getting put under real pressure with a week to go in the transfer window, that'll just take a little bit of pressure off.

4:23Peter Drury:Anthony Alanga, I'm sure we'll talk about Wieser and Hall who I think you picked out as perhaps your best Newcastle players but Alanga since I guess you knew him as a young boy growing up at Manchester United is one of those, it's always struck me, sort of mood players, you know if he's up and he's flying, he can be wonderful. To have that moment five minutes into a new season having not scored in the Premier League in the whole of his first Newcastle season, that's going to matter to him, isn't it?

4:49Gary Neville:Yeah, and look, on the counter-attack, if it becomes a straight race one-on-one, which I don't think... I actually don't blame Kerkis for that goal. So Kerkis is obviously marking him and he's the one chasing back. But I actually don't think he does a lot wrong. I actually think the rest of the team, the midfield empty in midfield, and then Van Dijk and Jacquet not pushing in. And if you're midfield out there, then the centre-backs, particularly in the modern game, they push right in. but he gets in a race with Kerkhezalanga, and it's like an Olympic sprinter. It was devastating to watch, and it was like time stood still, because you could see it coming from a mile off, couldn't you, that Asula was just going to roll him in, and then you're thinking, it's still a big thing to beat Alisson one-on-one.

5:29Gary Neville:You've seen him there save one at the end from Visser, but I do think he got, I think he over-covered the near post, the Brazilian goalkeeper, maybe because of the speed of the counter-attack he's shuffling across, he's not quite sort of got his measure of where he is, and there's just that gap in that far corner. It doesn't go right off the post or anything. It sort of goes in, I think, a metre into the corner, but he puts it across really nicely. And it's a great moment for him. And look, before the game, the one thing that I thought looking at sort of the game in terms of sort of where are Newcastle going to potentially do something was the fact that they have that front four.

6:02Gary Neville:Asula is a handful. Visser, I didn't think we were going to see that Visser, because I think, but he can be a handful. And, jeez, he was. And then you've got Alanga and Barnes. So you think to yourself, actually, that's the strongest part of Newcastle's team out there today. And when you look at Liverpool's full-backs, Kyrgyz and Frimpong, they do give you a big chance defensively. I don't think any winger's going to be playing against them and thinking, you know, I think they're going to be fancy the chances. Now, you've got to track them back that way because they do go forward really well and they're lively and they've got their strengths.

6:34Gary Neville:But I think defensively you can get at them and you can overpower them. So it was a great start for Newcastle. And that just gives them that feeling that, yeah, we're in this game. And that actually, you know, off the back of the Kevin Keegan tribute and the atmosphere at the start of the game, you thought this was true St. James' Park.

6:50Peter Drury:Yeah, the other one you picked out, apart from your man of the match, Johan Wieser, who's being interviewed now, was Lewis Hall. I mean, talk to me about his afternoon because he's played so well. And then he has to swallow that.

7:03Gary Neville:Do you know something? I think it was Ryan Giggs once said to me, he scored a goal once against me at the end of training and I'd literally marked him for like 45 minutes in an attack V defense. And I remember him saying to me, he said, I can run at you 50 times. He said, you can take it off me 49. He said, but if I score in that 50th, you're done. And it just sums up the life of a fullback that you can be brilliant for 89 minutes. You can be brilliant for 25 out of 26 one-on-one dribbles that you face. you can mark Engelmoer out of the game and you can mark Munoz out of the game although I thought I want to talk about Munoz in a bit because I actually thought he was really bright when he came on and also for a wide player to keep going at you because sometimes you can dishearten a wide player by them thinking that okay there's no point running at him anymore because he's comfortably marking me but he kept on going but I'm not going to do I don't like doing when your Munoz there and all he has to do is just do what he's done all game, which is just get low.

8:05Gary Neville:Muno's got, I mean, I'm on the wrong side here. Muno's got, and he just tracks him, tracks him, tracks him, manages the run. Maybe he blocks the shot. Maybe he blocks the cross. Maybe he runs it out for a corner. Maybe, you know, those things can happen. But what he decided to do is what I did towards the end of my career is, say, for instance, an older fullback or a tired fullback. And obviously, Lewis Hall's not an older fullback. He's a tired fullback. And when you're a tired fullback, sometimes what you do, because your legs have just been worked and your thighs are hurting, you're getting down and you just, Rather than track back and think, I'm going to work my legs one more time, you just go and do that.

8:37Gary Neville:You do that. And when that knee goes there, you then try and pull it away a little bit, which I think he did. But as soon as a winger or a wide player, any forward, just pops that ball past you and sees that knee, you're done. And we've all done it. I've done it. I did, I think, against Steven Gerrard once at Old Trafford, where you just dive in rather than just doing your work defensively. and I think he was half complaining that it wasn't a penalty, but on his face it told you everything. And my heart sank for him because it was a brilliant performance from him today. He was the best full-back on the pitch by a mile in terms of his defensive work and then he's had to contend with that at the end.

9:21Gary Neville:And it's the life of a full-back. But credit to Munoz. I want to talk about him because actually I thought Ingemo struggled on that side a little bit, on the right hand side of his first game of the season he's still young and there's a long way to go so that you know that can happen but he found it tough against Lewis Hall but I thought when Munoz came on he was really bright and sharp and actually sort of got crosses in sometimes squeeze past Lewis Hall a little bit at times but yeah I thought he was bright and he'll feel really good about his first introduction sort of into the Premier League there and we're just seeing the penalty back now, aren't we?

9:57Gary Neville:Just see that leg go out, but it's good work from the Liverpool play. That touch is good, then the second one just passed him there and he just puts that leg out, yeah. So there we go, but yeah, well done to Munoz, a good introduction for him, he gets Liverpool that penalty. And Liverpool in general? Liverpool in general, look, you can't say that Liverpool didn't deserve a point out of the game because generally they had quite a few chances, but Newcastle could have been out of sight with the counter-attacks that they had. Overall,

10:29Gary Neville:I think Liverpool fans I think quite a few of them are gone at 2-1 you look at the look at that end you remember it was quite sparse wasn't it I was like surprised never a pen Sturridge there's a Newcastle fan saying never a pen it was mate unfortunately I think they'll be happy with the points a good finish for them and they're celebrating but I think deep down when you're measuring yourself the standards that Liverpool have in the last 5-10 years of winning titles I think that they'll travel home tonight back to Liverpool, back to Merseyside and they'll be thinking we've got a lot of work to do and the back four well let's go through it the two full backs look, if you're going to play and I love the idea of having Kerkhez and Fringpong and them flying forward but you better have two amazing centre backs and you better have two very good holding midfield players that are going to stop counterattacks and that are going to be able to get across and defend.

11:29Gary Neville:So that can happen, that can work, but you need to compensate for the... But if you've got a young right centre-back, which they have, and then they've got what I call midfield players that are Gravenbursch and Schrober's life, they're going to play that. I know McAllister will come into it. But they're not... I wouldn't say that they're holding midfield players. In fact, at times, they empty midfield by running forward and sort of quite unstructured. and not disciplined. So I think it's a real problem to try and get the balance right for Liverpool of the two centre-backs, the two really attacking, sort of winger-stroke full-backs, and then you've got this midfield, which is quite mobile.

12:10Gary Neville:So I don't think the back part of the pitch is right. It's not. It's going to concede goals, and it has conceded goals. So I wouldn't trust that that much. Although I think the boy Jacquet looked like he's got something, by the way. And it was tough for him at times. I thought Visser and Azula did well, but I thought he's passing and he's confidence. He's one of those where sometimes you see a sort of young centre-back that are quite wiry and gangly and they haven't got the sort of what will be the control sometimes and they sort of pass it and they haven't got the sturdiness in the pass. But I thought he was really good in that.

12:39Gary Neville:So he looks like he's got something. I'm only seeing him, to be fair, here for the first time in the Liverpool shirt today, but you get a good feeling early on of things that you like and I liked him. The big thing for Liverpool is they've got this quarter of a billion pound front two. Isak and Virts. And bloody hell, we've been kind to them. We have been kind to those two. They're going to have to start playing sooner else, to be fair. They're going to get quite a lot of criticism. And I think they're going to have to start delivering. I mean, for a start, they're too nice. You know, and if you're going to be nice, you better be incredible at football.

13:18Gary Neville:And like, literally, you know, I don't see the tenacity, in Virts in particular. I mean, Isak a bit more, but in Verz, I just see a nice player moving around the pitch, not really ever looking like he's busting a gut to do anything. Now, that can happen because sometimes you see sometimes like a Mesut Ozil or you see players that are more graceful that sort of just flow with the game a little bit. And Havertz is a bit like that, isn't it, at Arsenal, where just sometimes players have that flow about them. But I want to put a rocket up him. I want to put a rocket up him because there's ability there there's talent there the understanding of his position sometimes I think he moves around too much sometimes I don't think he's close enough to his striker sometimes I don't think he understands where the game's going to be won and lost and I can take it back to sort of when I played football and think about sometimes where do you know in number 10s sometimes drifted too deep or sometimes drifted too wide they would get a right rollicking off our manager the game's not going to be won out there the game's not going to be won back there the game's going to be won in the final third, in and around the box, combining with your striker, getting crosses, getting little passes, getting little side passes down the side of the centre-backs, being close enough to your forwards so that you can combine with him.

14:31Gary Neville:And I don't see him combining with Isaac. So for me, and I've said this for 12 months now with Virts, and I'm not wrong on him, he generally drifts too much. Now, I know that sometimes we can talk about, oh, give him the freedom to move where he wants. No, I'm sorry. Sorry. that's not actually what I think a number 10 and a number 9 should work and in the modern game usually there's a real discipline about positional attacking positions and I just feel like Virts has got to really think about maybe being involved in the build up less he's got to think about being a second striker rather than a sort of third midfield player he's got to think about his output and what he needs to do and that is feed Isaac with little passes He's down the side of centre-backs.

15:18Gary Neville:And he might only get the ball two or three times in that position in tight games where teams are light deep. But I'll tell you what, they've got to improve. And I'm laying on them right here, right now, because I've watched them for 12 months, and I think actually I've got faith in them. I think he's actually an exceptional player, and we've seen it. I never saw anybody give Gabriel and Saliba or Van Dijk and Canati as tough a time as he did when he played at Newcastle in a black and white shirt. So I've seen him be devastating. Now, Liverpool fans and Liverpool's teammates and Liverpool's coaching staff, they need to see that because that's 125 million quid.

15:54Gary Neville:And then Verts, he needs to sort himself out. Enough's enough now. We've talked about him enough and he's young and he's coming into a different country and I'm all for willing him. I actually do have some, I can see a real player there, but can't keep watching this stuff. And he's being subbed after an hour. And they need a goal. But they're 2-1 down. So no, that's not right. So yeah, biggest disappointment for me today is those two. I think Gakpo actually did all right. There's talk of him leaving, but I actually think Gakpo, if you had a suite of three or four wide players, I don't have a problem with Gakpo, at the top level, by the way, where Liverpool want to be or an Arsenal, I think he'd be in most top teams, sort of what would be four wide players.

16:32Gary Neville:You might not want him as your one and two, but you'd be certainly happy if he was your sort of second left winger. And then Engelmo's a young boy on the right, and it didn't quite happen for him today, but Munoz came on and did what he did. So, there's some positives for Liverpool, but the big question is that front two. I know Eketika is not in the mix at the moment, but they have to deliver. Let's be clear, you can't not deliver for that money when you're sort of getting paid that level of money and you've had that fee on you, you've got that quality and that talent. You've got to deliver. You've got to deliver numbers.

17:01Gary Neville:35 goals between them, that's it. Probably 15 assists between them, that's it. Anything else and anything below that isn't right. so let's start to sort of what will be honing on them because they have had a bit of a free ride I mean obviously Isaac was injured last season but I don't know if he loses his job and Virts has played like that so let's be clear this has got to start some real focus now I think in terms of how he's playing and I think that wasn't a good start for him today but look let's see how he goes in the next few weeks

17:31Peter Drury:Sure well let's go back sort of backwards through the weekend I don't know how much you saw of the earlier games today clearly I watched quite a bit of City well yeah and a big shock for Villa so what did you make of City?

17:42Gary Neville:I saw the goals in the first half I was sat in the truck we had City and Villa oh that was a massive I mean the goals that Villa conceded were horrific but you looked at the Villa team as it was announced and you looked at the Villa bench and you were like they've had the heart ripped out of it you talk about who's left Dinier Tielemans Rodgers Konza talk about the heart being ripped out of Newcastle's midfield I mean the experience that they've lost there and there's this peculiar thing going on isn't there at the moment with PSR and sort of the no one knows where the money is it's all over the shop isn't it and so Villa will be sat there Villa's fans will be sat there they've got an outstanding manager and the big thing that I was thinking during that match at 4-0 was they've got to keep Unai Emery is Unai Emery going to think hang on a minute I can't be associated with this hopefully not because I really want Villa to do well and I want Unai Emery to stay there because I think I love the idea of different teams breaking into the Champions League places and watching Villa in the last couple of seasons has been a joy.

18:46Gary Neville:Just I love Wiena Emery and the way he works, where his teams play. And it's great to see them from where they were 10 years ago when they were in the Championship. So yeah, it's a brilliant journey that they've been on and sort of getting into this position. But this could go like that quite quickly. But they've got to hold on to the manager. They've somehow got to get some players in this week. There's talk of the boy signed from Germany, Nygoretska, was it, I think, as he signed? yeah so look if they can get three or four in this week he does have a habit in IEM of being able to get players in well you'd want to play for him wouldn't you oh yeah of course you would I mean I think probably he's the best manager in the league from a point of view of overall record and his experience so absolutely you'd want to play for him and Villa are in a great position they're gonna have a lot of good games this season so look that was a shock seeing that well done to Brighton but yeah that was a big shock and my immediate nervousness for Aston Villa is keeping their manager and City look City deserved to win the game because you look at Haaland's miss and Gaye's miss, did you see Gaye's miss just after the header and I actually thought City in the first 5-10 minutes were really bright the shock for me was actually that when I saw the City team go up I didn't think the players would play in those positions, I think Rico Lewis went to right back, I think that Nico O 'Reilly went to left back I think Gay went into midfield Foden went to right wing so it was a bit what's that so I think not quite right and look from a City perspective it was really important that they won and from Resca particularly in your first weekend and a lot of pressure on these new managers that are coming into these big clubs with expectation and taking over from Pep Guardiola but City deserved to win in the game but it wasn't plain sailing for them and there were some things to concern yourselves about look over the last week when we were sort of previewing the season all I kept thinking about was that this is going to be the most unpredictable season it's going to be intriguing because you've got new managers you've got lots of new players you've got so much change at the top and Arsenal should win this league by a street and I don't sit here on Sunday evening thinking anything differently we've seen Tottenham get beat yesterday we've seen Manchester United get beat we've seen Liverpool nearly get beat here today we've seen City scrambling for a win at home so everything we thought we would see we're seeing Ipswich beat Sunderland.

21:07Gary Neville:So yeah, Villa get beat 4-0. So everything that we thought we would see, the unpredictable nature of teams at the top, probably not being good enough to go and basically do what they did last season and the season before and get beat by teams that are well organised like Brentford and Ipswich and others and Hull. So yeah, it's played out pretty much as I thought it would do and for City it was a good win, but still questions in terms... Because look, City are same as Liverpool. these two clubs were getting nearly 100 or were getting 100 points how long ago? 6, 7 years ago? 5, 6 and that's still fresh in the memory treble winners 4 times Premier League winners Jurgen Klopp Liverpool Arna Slott's champions that's just happened and so we're measuring these two clubs by the standards that they've set and they're nowhere near that standard this Liverpool team are nowhere near the levels of a Premier League title winning team I don't believe they're going to need a lot of work and City I think that But yeah, they're well below where they need to.

22:04Gary Neville:I think losing Rodri is a massive blow. Yeah. Do you want to go through yesterday?

22:08Peter Drury:Well, yeah. I suppose the two headline ones were Spurs and Manchester United, which perhaps is the wrong way of saying it. Perhaps the headlines are Brentford and Hull.

22:16Gary Neville:Yeah.