‘It Wasn’t’ – Eddie Howe Reveals What He Couldn’t Understand About Liverpool Victory Over Newcastle United

Eddie Howe expressed disappointment over Newcastle United’s defensive display in their defeat to Liverpool.

Liverpool secured a comfortable 2-0 victory at Anfield, extending their lead at the top of the Premier League table to 13 points. Despite Newcastle’s impressive form, with 13 wins in their last 16 matches and a strong push for Champions League qualification, they struggled against the league leaders.

Arne Slot’s team dominated the match, with Dominik Szoboszlai opening the scoring early in the first half. The win was sealed when Alexis Mac Allister netted a second goal midway through the second half, leaving Newcastle with no way back into the contest.

Newcastle, on the other hand, failed to register a single shot on target throughout the game. While Howe acknowledged his team’s lack of sharpness in attack, he was particularly critical of the defensive mistakes that led to the goals. The Newcastle manager reflected on his team’s performance, highlighting the need for improvement.

“I thought we played pretty well. What I don’t understand was the two goals – we should never have conceded from those situations. We had enough bodies back but didn’t mark the men. We were two yards off.

“I’m really disappointed with that aspect of our play but in between the boxes I thought we were competitive. It wasn’t our best performance form an attacking sense but we had our moments.

“There wasn’t a bundle of chances for us but we weren’t clinical enough, that’s obvious. We had the ball in dangerous areas but didn’t make the most of those.”

Newcastle suffered a late setback as their prolific striker, Alexander Isak, who has scored 21 goals, was left out of the squad due to a minor groin injury.

The Magpies are set to face Liverpool again in two weeks at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final. Howe is hopeful that Isak will return in time and believes the defeat could provide valuable lessons for the upcoming clash in the capital. He remarked,

“We’ll analyse this game, and it will help us for the final, but I’m sure Liverpool will be saying the same thing. They’re a high-quality team, they have good players in all areas and.

“I had a chat with him [Isak] around lunchtime. He was feeling something yesterday and maybe hoped it would improve overnight but it didn’t.

“I thought we were always in the game, and showed our strength with our delivery or what we were trying to do – but we missed Alex’s quality, Joelinton’s strength and Sven’s [Botman] height and technical ability.

“We are missing some key components in our team and those players would have made a difference. Still, I back the players on the pitch but that quality was missing.

“The spirit and determination we lacked against Manchester City recently was there but we’ve still got a bit to go but a big improvement from our last away performance.”

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