‘I apologise’ - Newcastle striker backtracks on Liverpool claim and makes big top-four admission

Newcastle United striker Callum Wilson has apologised to Liverpool for doubting they had bounced back to their best.

The Reds have endured an unwhelming season for much of the 2022-23 campaign but are finding form at the right time. Jurgen Klopp’s side have now won four of their past five Premier League games - culminating in a historic 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United.

Liverpool are now up to fifth in the table and have Champions League qualification in their sights. After a 2-0 defeat of Newcastle last month, Wilson played down the Reds’ performance and claimed that the Magpies has faced tougher tests.

But he backtracked on that sentiment and admitted that Klopp’s troops made a ‘statement of intent’ amid the top four race with Newcastle and Tottenham.

Wilson, speaking on the Footballer’s Football Podcast, said: “I apologise for saying that Liverpool weren't back... they’re back with a bang! The way things are going for me at the minute, anything I do, the universe brings the opposite.

“When United lifted the trophy (the Carabao Cup) against us a week ago, you couldn't see that result coming. That is football, that is the beauty of the Premier League and that's why it's the toughest league in the world.

“A team that had been struggling against a team that's already lifted a trophy goes and beats them 7-0, it' a battering really.

“This season, they have won 9-0 as well so they have got that in the locker. It's just in between I guess but they're well and truly back now. To do that to United is a statement of intent and to show the rest of the people in and around them in the league that they're coming up the table and trying to get into the European spots, for sure.”