Three weeks after Newcastle lost at Anfield they turned the tables on Liverpool at Wembley, with Eddie Howe admitting he pulled a fast one on Arne Slot.
Newcastle‘s approach in their 2-0 loss to Liverpool at the end of February was a welcome surprise for Slot, who watched the game from the stands.
But they were back to a more tried-and-trusted setup in the Carabao Cup final and, unfortunately for Liverpool, it paid off.
Dan Burn’s header from a corner was followed by an expert finish from Alexander Isak to make it 2-0, with Federico Chiesa‘s late strike a mere consolation in a game the Reds were physically and tactically dominated.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Howe was asked whether he had changed his approach for the Premier League defeat to force Slot into second-guessing his setup.
“We didn’t want to show our hand when we played them a few weeks ago,” he replied.
“We still wanted to win that game we just did it in a different way.”
It clearly paid off, with Newcastle stronger in every area, most notably from set-pieces which saw Alexis Mac Allister marking the 6’7″ Burn.
However, Howe admitted he had been left surprised by how effective they had been: “We worked consistently for two weeks on set-plays just for this game and if you had seen us in practice you would have said we had no chance.
“We couldn’t believe Dan Burn scored – he didn’t train like that! He was a colossus for us.”
Slot’s own approach was a strange one, particularly in his use of the substitutes available to him – starting by withdrawing Ibrahima Konate and pushing Ryan Gravenberch to centre-back.
Liverpool ended the game with Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and the goalscorer Chiesa all on the pitch while Virgil van Dijk joined them up up front.
It summed up the desperation in their game after being comprehensively outplayed; Howe’s tactical ploy in the league paying off as Newcastle won the cup.
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