Eddie Howe's Carabao Cup final statement in wake of Newcastle's defeat at Anfield
EDDIE HOWE says Newcastle United will learn lessons from last night’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool as they put a plan together for the Carabao Cup final, and is confident his side can cause problems for their Wembley opponents despite failing to record a single shot on target at Anfield.
Newcastle were beaten 2-0 as Liverpool moved 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League table thanks to goals from Dominic Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister.
While the Magpies produced a much-improved display from their 4-0 thrashing at the Etihad in their previous away display, they failed to lay a glove on Arne Slot’s league leaders, who did not really have to get out of first gear to claim all three points.
The teams will meet again at Wembley on March 16, and while Liverpool will start as even stronger favourites in the wake of last night’s routine success, Howe is confident there are areas his side can exploit.
“I’m sure there’ll be things that they look at, and things that we look at,” said the Magpies boss. “I think every time you play an opponent, you learn something new, and we’ll certainly take things away.
“We’ll analyse this game and it will help us for the final, but I’m sure Liverpool will be saying the same thing as well. They are a high-quality team. They’ve got good players in all areas, and you could see why they’re doing so well.
“Today was all about trying to win this game, there was no withholding of cards to try to play games. It was trying to win today. We felt we had to do something different with the team we had available – let’s see what we do in the final.”
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If Newcastle are to finally end their 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy when they line up at Wembley next month, they are going to have to find a way of penetrating the Liverpool defence.
Their failure to force Alisson into a single save last night was a major disappointment, but Howe feels the 3-3 draw at St James’ Park earlier this season proves his players are capable of breaking down the Reds’ backline.
“I think we’ve shown previously we have the quality to hurt them in the home game,” he said. “We had a really good attacking display then. Today was not so strong, but I thought our general performance was good. Let’s hope we can put them both together.
“Of course, there’s a bit of a way to go. I couldn’t sit here and say I’m absolutely satisfied with that, but I thought the spirit and determination, and everything we lacked against Manchester City recently, was there.
“So, I was pleased with the psychology of the squad. But there’s no doubting we’ve still got a bit to go. I think it was a big improvement from our last away performance though, and I take big hope from that.
“We’re going through a difficult run of fixtures – when you consider Nottingham Forest as well, they’re tough games for us. I think we’ve come through relatively well – now we’ve got to try to get back to winning ways.”
Howe tweaked his formation in last night’s defeat, with Anthony Gordon playing in the ‘number ten’ role behind Callum Wilson and Joe Willock shuffling across to a wide position on the left-hand side.
“Without going into too many details, it was difficult to ask Callum to play on his own,” said Howe, when asked about his tactical switch. “We wanted to try to get him some support and help, and also to try to be competitive in the game.
“We wanted to ask Liverpool some questions, so to try to play with two players up there didn’t harm us defensively, and I thought it gave us a twin attack. There were some really dangerous counter-attack moments in the game, but they were situations that we didn’t make the most of.”
