Benteke’s frustrations with a poor individual showing were clear when he and Firmino made way for Sturridge and Adam Lallana after the hour, but Klopp’s double change did not turn the contest in his favour.
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Man-of-the-match Georgino Wijnaldum was also pleased to follow up last weekend’s 5-1 thrashing at Crystal Palace with three points here. At the start you could see a lack of confidence but we grew into the game and I thought we deserved to win.
A win would have brought the Reds level on points with fifth-placed Spurs, and just three points behind Manchester City and Manchester United, all of whom dropped points on Saturday afternoon to leave the door ajar for Jurgen Klopp’s side to burst into the title race.
Georginio Wijnaldum cut a ball across the face of goal and, as it reached the near post, it deflected off the shin of a sliding Skrtel and into the back of the net.
Alberto Moreno had a volley ruled out for offside when Newcastle were leading 1-0, and Klopp joked that the decision was punishment for Liverpool’s performance.
They got their reward with 29 minutes gone when Wijnaldum collected Moussa Sissoko’s cross and worked his way into position before firing home via a deflection off defender Martin Skrtel. “But I think in the situation Newcastle are in, you can say it’s absolutely okay for them to play like that”.
With Liverpool well on top throughout the opening 20 minutes, the Reds still struggled to create much in front of goal despite their heavy pressing.
McClaren’s relief when Wijnaldum chipped home the second goal in stoppage time was obvious, and while he was keen to downplay the personal importance of the victory, he at least acknowledged it would enable him to enjoy a stress-free night.
Klopp insisted he and his squad can not go “crazy” after this setback as a result, but underlined the importance of working hard to make improvements ahead of their next outing.
“Maybe we deserved a point, sometimes you need dirty points”. We have to take this game and think about why it happened – that’s not the biggest issue in the world.
And the Senegalese forward had a superb chance to give his side the lead late on in the first half.
Steve McClaren will have been thrilled by the application and commitment shown by his players, but equally pleased with the way they kept their shape under intense pressure.
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“But Newcastle, they played a good game, they made it difficult for us and we found it hard to break them down. Dejan, Martin and the two full backs did a good job, but we were not creative enough, so we had no chances”.
