It’s an achievement in the first place for Liverpool to be playing in a Champions League Round of 16 tie vs PSG and a Carabao Cup Final five days apart.
Big weeks in football can be dizzyingly uplifting or crushingly disappointing.
Success in the Premier League has been so casually brilliant that there have rarely been games with such magnitude and jeopardy, mainly because Liverpool cruised to the title.
It’s a tad disheartening then from a Liverpool perspective that the loss to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final rounded off a bad week and effectively ended the season.
As Newcastle United’s grit, determination and amped-up physicality proved to be too much for Liverpool, here are five talking points from the final:
1. Lack of Liverpool Energy in a Carabao Cup final
Geordies and Newcastle United fans around the world would’ve been licking their lips when Liverpool were taken to extra time and then penalties.
The weariness was abundantly clear in Liverpool’s legs as soon as extra time vs PSG started, they had exerted so much energy trying to score in the second half but couldn’t put the ball in the net.
You have to factor in, just like the Carabao Cup final two years ago, this was a huge deal for Newcastle United.
Bruno Guimaraes called it their ‘World Cup’ and when you’re facing an aggressive midfield like Joelinton, Sandro Tonali, and Bruno Guimaraes, being low on energy is going to lose you the game.
Before Dan Burn’s header in the first half, Newcastle United was the better team but not because they had created much, more so every duel, every header, and every tackle, Newcastle United was first to it.
This gave them even more energy and set the tone for the rest of the game.
Perhaps tiredness from Tuesday was a factor and the tenacity against Newcastle’s aggression proved to be too much.
2. Lack of goalscoring threat with Salah nullified
Maximising Mohamed Salah has been the best thing Slot has done since arriving at Liverpool.
But with Newcastle going with five in midfield and squeezing the centre, whenever Salah received the ball to feet, Livramento jumped on him and he lacked support.
There wasn’t much the Egyptian could do and Liverpool were blunt in front of goal for the first half, it was only when they needed to turn the screw in the second half that they really came alive, even then they only registered two shots on target.
The lack of movement is something not commonly associated with the best attack in the Premier League, but Newcastle United despite having less of the ball nullified Liverpool like no other team has this season.
When Liverpool’s attack is blunt, it’s mainly because teams have figured out if they can stop Salah, they stop Liverpool.
As a result, Fabrizio Romano has reported that the Anfield club have accelerated talks for Alexander Isak.
3. Chiesa needs more minutes
When Arne Slot went hell for leather, opting to throw on any attacker on the bench in hopes of turning the game around was the only time Liverpool upped the ante.
The pick of the attackers was Federico Chiesa, as the Italian winger gave Liverpool a forward who could actually run in behind and not drop off to link-up.
Federico Chiesa was a major positive from a day of disappointment. He won 4 duels from 4, which is interesting as Arne Slot mentioned our loss of duels at full-time. He was bright, lively and showed that he really wanted to make an impact. He won 3 free kicks in just over 15… pic.twitter.com/lvJicwqqwe
— DaveOCKOP (@DaveOCKOP) March 16, 2025
Arne Slot explained in his post-match press conference that typically the players who are non-starters don’t have much time to train with the starting eleven, as after games this season, the players who have started are busy doing recovery sessions.
Henceforth, there hasn’t been much time to bed players on the bench in and offer them first-team minutes.
If Darwin Nunez can be a substitution to turn to regularly to cause chaos, so can the Italian.
With nine games left and the title wrapped up, we may be treated to more Federico Chiesa minutes in the league.
4. Difficult to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold creativity
Salah has been irresistible this season, but what many people forget is that his combination with Trent Alexander-Arnold has been the key to helping the Egyptian thrive.
Alexander-Arnold is normally running off Salah, which takes a defender with him leaving Salah 1 on 1 with a full-back.
There’s also the undeniable fact that when Trent Alexander-Arnold is not in the team, Liverpool lose one of the best creative passers in the world who can split defenses open with one pass anywhere on the pitch.
It wasn’t by coincidence either that when he went off injured vs PSG, Liverpool lacked inventiveness.
With Trent Alexander-Arnold’s future still uncertain, the game was a reminder of what a Liverpool team looks like bereft of his generational talent.
5. Question marks over Diogo Jota’s future
It shouldn’t be underestimated how well Liverpool have done to easily clinch a title with 9 games left, but the work ahead in the summer in terms of who leaves and who comes in is going to be huge and may define the next five years.
The attack has thrived this season but it’s mainly been Salah doing the heavy lifting with no other Liverpool goal scorer netting double digits in the league.
Staggeringly, Diogo Jota has completed just two full 90’s in the league this season.
Whilst he has struggled with injuries, Slot has used the Portuguese forward sparingly and whilst the Dutchman like Klopp has been lucky to enough to have five forwards he can rotate and put into different situations, he may want to keep this option of a variety in attack but with different personnel.
Jota is a striker who can drop deep to receive, but it feels like Slot has many forwards who can do this.
It could be that Jota is shifted to another club to make room for a different type of attacker.
It’s no easy feat to lose just once in an entire Premier League season, particularly with the league boasting of teams who are more innovative than ever in the way they set up with the ball and without it.
The upsetting shootout loss to PSG and the deserved loss to Newcastle United in the space of a week, however, will leave a feeling of what could’ve been as this season is an utter resounding success.
But with the momentum and form these Liverpool players have been in this season, it could’ve been more.
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