Newcastle United forward Christian Atsu has apologised to his Magpies teammates for the role he played in the build-up to Liverpool’s second goal on Saturday, as quoted by The Shields Gazette.
Steve Bruce’s Toon had opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Eintracht Frankfurt loanee Jetro Willems unleashed a rocket from his right boot to beat Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian, but ultimately left Merseyside empty handed as the hosts rallied to record a 3-1 win.
Newcastle travelled to Anfield looking to record their first win away to Liverpool since April 1994 (TransferMarkt), having struggled to secure a favourable result on the road to the Reds throughout their history.
A Sadio Mane first-half brace helped ensure the Toon’s record continued at the weekend as he struck twice to move Liverpool ahead, with his second of the day coming directly after Roberto Firmino dispossessed Atsu.
The Brazilian had only been on the field for two minutes following an injury to Divock Origi, but made an instant impact by playing a perfectly weighted pass to his Senegalese teammate to score.
Mane’s double proved to be the turning point in proceedings, with Atsu’s mistake a game-changing moment as Liverpool were able to pick their tails up, take control and pen Newcastle on the back foot for the remainder of the tie.
“We were in the game, we scored one,” Atsu said. “Then it was unfortunate that I gave the ball away. The second goal was very crucial in this game [and] I can only apologise to the players and also the fans.
“They’re a top team – we knew that. Against these teams, when you make a mistake, you’re going to get punished. They scored from our mistakes, and we have to take the positives out of this and focus on the next game.
“In the first 20 minutes I thought we were very good. We defended really well [and] we had a go – we knew it was going to be difficult. Like I said, it was very unfortunate that they scored to make it 2-1 from the ball I lost in midfield.”
Newcastle will have to hope Atsu learns from his mistake quickly as Bruce will be relying on the Ghana international in the absence of summer signing Allan Saint-Maximin, who faces another month on the sidelines after aggravating the hamstring injury he sustained away to Tottenham (Chronicle).
Ada Foah-born Atsu did not have a particularly poor game at Anfield – barring the error which led to Mane’s second goal – either, as the 27-year-old started promisingly by releasing Willems down the left-hand channel to score rather than trying to take on the Liverpool backline single-handedly.
Atsu followed his assist with another two key passes – the most of any Newcastle player and second-most overall to Trent Alexander-Arnold (7) – along with leading the Magpies for dribbles completed (3 of 7), ranking second for interceptions (2) and successful tackles (3 of 5), per data collected by WhoScored.
Newcastle fans, have you been impressed with how Atsu has stepped up to the plate in Saint-Maximin’s absence? Let us know in the comments below…
