Graphic: tactical analysis - shot to pieces

Before he took his seat in the press room, a good 35 minutes after the final whistle, Alan Shearer poured himself a glass of water and took several large gulps. This had always threatened to be another chastening afternoon in Newcastle United’s turbulent recent history and, if there was a single shred of consolation for their would-be saviour as his club moved ever close to the precipice, it was that the margin of defeat had not been wider.

By the end of a grim afternoon, with Newcastle 3-0 down and reduced to ten men after Joey Barton earned a needless red card, Shearer was suffering the indignity of being on the receiving end of some acerbic wit from the Liverpool crowd.

“Alan Shearer is a football genius”, the Kop chanted before telling him “You should have stayed on the telly” and, just in case he was unsure what they meant, singing the Match of the Day tune. To his credit, he took the gibes in good heart, claiming later that he had decided to laugh along with them because the alternative was to cry.

Mickey-taking, derision, humiliation. Call it what you like, but it is not what Shearer imagined a month ago when he accepted the mission to keep Newcastle in the Barclays Premier League. It must have seemed so easy back then — breeze into St James’ Park, lift the spirits of the players and supporters and sit back and watch as the points pile up — but his team are in a truly desperate state, so much so that he resorted yesterday to the desperate measure of dropping Michael Owen. It was a gamble that did not pay off. For Newcastle, they never do.

Newcastle were awful, overwhelmed and comprehensively outclassed by a Liverpool team who refuse to accept that the Premier League title race is over. Goals from Yossi Benayoun, Dirk Kuyt and Lucas Leiva did not even begin to reflect Liverpool’s superiority or, rather, Newcastle’s inferiority. Steve Harper, the visiting goalkeeper, was overworked and spared his team further humiliation, but three times he found himself indebted to the crossbar, with Xabi Alonso, twice, and Steven Gerrard unfortunate to be denied the spectacular goals that their performances merited.

Headlines will be dominated by Joey Barton’s sending-off, for an unnecessary lunge on Alonso with 13 minutes remaining, and Shearer’s condemnation of a player who will miss the remaining three games of Newcastle’s survival battle, but Newcastle’s problems go much deeper.

Their defence was all at sea from the moment that Benayoun gave Liverpool a lead from what looked like a marginally offside position midway through the first half. The second and third goals were scored by Kuyt and Lucas with free headers from set-pieces, but there were countless other occasions that Liverpool, minus the injured Fernando Torres, carved them open. Their midfield was non-existent, as is their attack, which has mustered a solitary goal in five games since Shearer’s arrival.

Shearer’s rationale for dropping Owen was understandable in one sense, but it was also terrifying. He said that the decision was made because the team “haven’t been creating chances”, so it seemed more sensible to pick Obafemi Martins because the Nigerian was “more likely to score from 25 yards”.

Fabio Capello does not pick Owen for England because he feels that the forward does not fit into his game plan. Shearer does not pick him for Newcastle because the team are so damned awful that they cannot create chances for him. In some ways, the stark contrast between the teams was mirrored by the two men who were deployed in the hole behind a lone striker. Gerrard and Barton were raised on the same Bluebell estate in Huyton, but that is all they have in common these days.

While Gerrard produced another virtuoso performance, even if at times perhaps a little too eager to shoot from distance, Barton faded after setting up Newcastle’s one goalscoring opportunity, for Peter Lovenkrands in the opening stages. His two-footed lunge on Alonso, who was shielding the ball by the corner flag, was reckless and wild.

Alonso had been the game’s outstanding player, spraying the ball around in such a manner that at times it was as if he and Gerrard were playing an entirely different game to Barton, Alan Smith and Nicky Butt. Some of Liverpool’s attacking play was beautifully incisive, but their goals were workaday, Benayoun stretching out a knee to convert Kuyt’s driven cross-shot in the 22nd minute before Kuyt, left unmarked by Habib Beye, headed in from Fábio Aurélio’s corner six minutes later.

Remarkably, after Alonso had twice rattled the crossbar, it took until the 87th minute for the third goal to arrive, Lucas, a substitute, converting a free kick by Aurélio.

Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, was not satisfied, saying that his team had wasted the chance to improve their goal difference. It was put to Shearer that, in terms of goal difference, this might have been worse, but that will come into the equation only if Newcastle can somehow make up their deficit to Hull City and Sunderland.

The Newcastle revival has to start against Middlesbrough a week today, but, on this evidence, do not bet on it.

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): J M Reina 6 - Á Arbeloa 7, J Carragher 7, D Agger 7, F Aurélio 7 - J Mascherano 7, X Alonso 9 - Y Benayoun 7, S Gerrard 8, A Riera 6 - D Kuyt 7. Substitutes: R Babel 6 (for Riera, 63min), Lucas Leiva (for Alonso, 80), D Ngog (for Mascherano, 90). Not used: D Cavalieri, M Skrtel, A Dossena, N El Zhar. Next: West Ham (a).

Newcastle (4-2-3-1): S Harper 7 - H Beye 5, F Collocini 4, S Bassong 6, D Duff 5 - N Butt 6, A Smith 5 - O Martins 3, J Barton 4, P Lovenkrands 4 - M Viduka 4. Substitutes: J Gutiérrez 5 (for Lovenkrands, 46min), K Nolan (for Viduka, 80), M Owen (for Martins, 80). Not used: T Krul, D Edgar, D Guthrie, A Carroll. Next: Middlesbrough (h).

Referee: P Dowd Attendance: 44,121