Bruno Guimarães of Newcastle United (L) fights for the ball Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool (R) during the Carabao Cup Final between Liverpool and Newcastle United at Wembley Stadium
Bruno Guimarães of Newcastle United (L) fights for the ball Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool (R) during the Carabao Cup Final between Liverpool and Newcastle United at Wembley Stadium
I don’t want to put the boot into Liverpool because it has been a great season and we’re still looking so strong for the league. They’ve given us so much enjoyment, but in the cups we’ve very much underachieved.
Against Plymouth in the FA Cup, we played our fringe players and got it wrong. PSG were better than us over the two legs in the Champions League. And against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final, we just weren’t good enough. It was so different from the league game a few weeks ago.
We topped the Champions League table so we’ve been buzzing all season. We’ve been top of both leagues but it’s fallen flat a bit now. It’s up to the players now to not let it stagnate. It would be a really fantastic season still, winning the league.
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I think we were guilty of underestimating Newcastle a little bit. The physicality side especially. I believe Eddie Howe didn’t show his plan when we beat them comfortably at Anfield.
I think he saved it to put into this game. And PSG did it to us in Paris too, they bullied us a bit. That certainly happened on Sunday. Newcastle played like men possessed. The 70-year wait, they wanted it more than us. You’re going to struggle in games if you don’t win your battles.
Next up is Everton and against Everton, they will try to do similar. Underline exactly what we’ve struggled with against PSG and Newcastle. They’ll pinpoint that and go out to win the battles in midfield.
Newcastle did that. In midfield, they were stronger. They were stronger than us and came out with the ball much more. That puts pressure on your team. It sounds simple, but it is. We didn’t use our guile, we didn’t pass it well, we didn’t get past them in midfield.
They’re a physical side with physical players. Decent players but physical. It’s what they did from the first minute. A few might liken it to the Wimbledon game in 1988 when Vinnie Jones went in on Steve McMahon in the first minute.
That was their tactic to put you off the game. But we should have had enough.
We got set-pieces massively wrong
I don’t want to point fingers at the technical side at Liverpool, for the set-pieces, but common sense needs to prevail. Dan Burn is built like a WWE wrestler!
After the first corner when it was already blatantly obvious he was too powerful and too physical. Alexis Mac Allister’s not that type of player. We got that set-up miles wrong.
Back in our day, that doesn't happen. After the first one Alan Hansen would have screamed at me, ‘Aldo! Swap! You go mark him!’ We’d have taken it upon ourselves. But they can’t now because it’s a little bit robotic.
If you’re told to do something, the players do it and they won’t change it on the pitch. Whereas in our day, if you see something dangerous like that, you would change it.
The first one was a warning, the second one, woah, but then the third one he scores. We should have seen that. We should have seen that and dealt with it.
Having said that, if you’re told to mark someone, you do it. We got it wrong, massively, massively wrong.
The first goal was always going to be vital. We needed to stay in the game until half-time. I said at the time just stay in the game until half-time and it might be different in the second half.
But then Newcastle got the goal at the right time before half-time and didn’t look back. The way the game was, we couldn’t get back into it.
We were knocked out by PSG and we got beaten in the final and deservedly so. If we had been unlucky and were the better team, that makes it harder to take. It makes it easy for supporters to take.
The galling thing was the performance we put in. I don’t want to talk about tiredness. Whether it is or it isn’t, it’s still a final. Things can happen in finals that can get the better of you.
But if it happens to four or five players at the same time, you’re going to struggle as a team.
Fair play to arrogant PSG
Achraf Hakimi was disrespectful with that PSG flag after beating us at Anfield. It’s probably spur of the moment stuff because we were top of the league. It’s a show thing. If I was a steward, I’d have run over and pulled it off him!
They were arrogant and disrespectful, we’d have never dreamed of doing that or saying some of the things they said.
But what I will say, I’ve had a lot of stick from French fans for saying it, about the arrogance, so one thing I will say about them is they said they would come to Anfield and beat Liverpool, they were arrogant, but they did what they said.
I applaud them for that. They actually put it down, ‘We’re going to go to Anfield and beat Liverpool’. They were arrogant as hell but they did it. Wow, that’s a really good arrogance.
They stood up and did what they said they were going to do so fair play to them. I can’t see Aston Villa getting anywhere near them in the quarter-finals.