Newcastle ended their long wait for a trophy by beating Liverpool on Sunday and also halted a decade-long winless run against the Reds in the process, making a side with a 12-point lead at the top of the Premier League look more ordinary than almost anyone has managed this season.
Eddie Howe’s team restricted Liverpool to a single shot before half-time and an xG of 0.89 overall to earn a convincing victory over Arne Slot’s side in a tactical and physical masterclass at Wembley.
What did Newcastle do to stifle their opponents and win so comfortably – and what was sorely lacking from a team who have been the Premier League’s runaway leaders?
Newcastle’s effective press
In previous games against Liverpool this season Newcastle have looked to frustrate Liverpool and hit them on the break.
But coming up against a side who had gone the distance in midweek against PSG, with the physical and mental strain that entailed, Howe appeared to feel emboldened and sent his team out to take full advantage by pressing the Reds high.
That tested Liverpool’s resolve, and whether down to a lack of confidence or fatigue – or more likely both – their response was to go long, with their proportion of long passes up almost 50 per cent on their average across the Premier League season.
Going direct in itself is not necessarily a problem, especially with the passing quality Liverpool possess – but not when they are hurried, forced by that Newcastle press and with the Reds lacking their normal composure. Exactly a third of their 57 long balls found a team-mate, far below their season average of 48 per cent.
The energy and pace of Newcastle’s front three set the tone, but it was in midfield where the physical battle was really won. The Brazilian duo of Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes marshalled the centre of the park, taking on 27 duels between them and winning nine each – in both cases, the best numbers of anyone on the pitch.
Arne Slot bristled when questioned whether it meant the Magpies had worked harder than his side, saying: “They won more duels than us. Is that outworking?
“Or is that one of their biggest qualities, to play so many aerial duels and to win these physical duels?”
Whatever the reason, Ryan Gravenberch looked a shadow of himself to the point Slot was prepared to move him to centre-back 10 minutes after half-time while Alexis Mac Allister also never got a handle on his South American counterparts.
Highlights from the Carabao Cup final between Liverpool and Newcastle
Salah stifled in another final
Mo Salah’s run without an open-play goal in finals continued at Wembley, but more concerning was how anonymous Liverpool’s talisman, and their most consistent match-winner was throughout the 90 minutes.
Everyone has quiet games but this was one of his least effective in almost eight years at Liverpool, at a time when they needed him most.
Salah had just one touch in the Newcastle box all game and did not register a shot across 90 minutes – he has had at least two in every Premier League game he has played in this season.
The Egyptian was not aided by the lack of any genuine width behind him in the absence of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Conor Bradley – with 45 per cent of Liverpool’s attacks coming down their left flank.
That starved him of a source of possession and also stopped him from doubling up on Tino Livramento, who had a comfortable game at left-back and was rarely troubled by the 32-year-old.
Liverpool’s most common passing combination was Virgil van Dijk feeding Andy Robertson on the other side 16 times throughout the 90 minutes – with the Scotsman completing almost double the number of final-third entries and passes compared to Jarell Quansah.
Liverpool’s stubbornness from corners
The enduring question of the final was why Mac Allister was left to mark Dan Burn at corners even when it had already become obvious before his headed opener that this was an aerial mismatch with only one winner.
The giant Geordie connected with two corners, both back-post headers up against the Argentine 10 inches shorter than him, before it proved three strikes and out for Liverpool when Burn beat Caoimhin Kelleher with his next effort moments before the interval, as Howe and his coaching staff found an innovative way to disregard their opponents’ best defenders.
“What they’re doing with these corners is taking (Ibrahima) Konate and Van Dijk out of the game,” said Sky Sports’ Gary Neville. “They’re in the six-yard box, protecting that area. But Burn, who’s a giant, keeps coming round the back on (Kieran) Trippier’s driven crosses.”
Local hero Dan Burn heads Newcastle in front in the Carabao Cup final
Mac Allister remained on him after half-time and was almost made to pay again as he shook off the Liverpool midfielder with ease to meet Guimaraes’ pull-back from another corner. Kelleher kept out that effort with Alexander Isak tapping home the rebound – before an offside flag cut short their celebrations.
The Reds’ mixed marking system which has generally served them well this season – in the Premier League, they have conceded only one goal from corners, one fewer than next-best Aston Villa.
That was enough for Slot to defend the decision to keep Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate marking zonally closer to their own goal and run the risk of further punishment from Burn.
“We play zonal, so we have five players, zonally, close to our goal,” he said. “So if the ball falls there, there is always one of the five stronger players that is going to attack that ball. And we have three players that man-mark and [Alexis Mac Allister] is one of them.
“Normally a player like Dan Burn or another one runs to the zone – and I think he’s an exception to that as I’ve never seen in my life a player from that far away heading the ball with so much force into the far corner.”
Inevitable fatigue sets in
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot reflects on his side’s 2-1 loss to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final and insists the midweek loss to Paris Saint-Germain did not impact their performance
Although Slot denied fatigue had anything to do with his players’ poor performance at Wembley, there is no question they have been run into the ground since the turn of the year in a two-and-a-half-month spell.
That has included both Carabao Cup semi-finals and Sunday’s final, 11 Premier League games and three Champions League matches – plus another half hour for the extra-time in last week’s last-16 second-leg defeat to PSG.
Liverpool have experienced a drop-off in recent weeks – they found themselves a goal down at home to Southampton last Saturday before a half-time triple change and even in their first-leg win over PSG, owed their victory to Alisson for his nine saves – the most a Reds goalkeeper has made in a single game in over a decade.
“Were we mentally or physically tired on Tuesday?” asked Slot after this latest defeat. “No, but this game had nothing to do with running.
“This game had only to do with playing duels and there was no intensity in terms of running in this game at all, so you cannot even judge it if we were tired, physically, because we could not press them.”
Aside from Howe’s side enjoying a free week while Liverpool were being taken the distance on Tuesday night, each of Newcastle’s outfield starting XI have played, on average, the equivalent of three games fewer than their opponents since the turn of the year.
Publicly, Slot may have defended his selection decisions but behind closed doors, he may consider whether a few more rest days would have been helpful for individual members of his squad at different times, given the week they have just endured.
