The ecstatic fans of Newcastle United celebrating a trophy for the first time in most of their lives.
Eddie Howe, the first English coach to get his hands on a major English trophy in 18 years. The chairman of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the true architect of this triumph, striding across the Wembley turf, basking in the glory of what might be the first of many. Football in the 2020s: it’s complicated.
Newcastle’s first domestic trophy in 70 years was won with a performance that showcased the best qualities of this team. Passion, drive, and the lethal finishing touch of Alexander Isak, the best centre-forward in the Premier League.
“I’m so pleased for the players, they’ve all had different journeys to come to this point. Honoured to be their leader. And for the supporters, who came in their thousands today. I’m just so pleased they have this trophy to end the long wait, hopefully we can get more in the future,” said Howe.
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That the first goal was scored by Dan Burn in the week he received his first international call-up was a nice narrative touch. If everyone marked Burn at corners the same way Liverpool did he would score every week.
Many wondered why Liverpool had 5ft9in Alexis MacAllister marking the 6ft7in Burn.
“I can explain,” Arne Slot revealed afterwards. “We play zonal, so we have five players zonally close to our goal. If the ball falls there, there’s always one of the five stronger players who’s gonna attack that ball. We have three players who man-mark, and Macca is one of those. Dan Burn, I think he’s an exception: I have never before in my life seen a player from that far away heading a ball with so much force into the far corner.”
Tell me you are new to English football without telling me you are new to English football.
Slot’s admiration for Burn heading the ball so hard recalled an interview Liverpool’s owner John Henry did with the journalist David Conn back in 2011. Henry and Conn were watching Liverpool lose 4-0 to Tottenham when Henry marvelled, of Andy Carroll: “Boy, did you see how far he headed that thing?” Henry, to be fair, was never a football man.
More relevant was the fact that Burn had seen a similar header saved by Caoimhín Kelleher just moments earlier. Liverpool ignored the warning - and duly got Burned.
“We’ve been working on those corners tirelessly for two weeks,” Howe said.
A Newcastle fan banner urged their team to ‘Get Into Them’ and that is exactly what Howe’s team did from the outset. A scrappy first half was dominated by long balls and headed defensive clearances, but Newcastle were the only team creating even half-chances. Not for the first time in recent weeks, Liverpool were listless and low-energy.
“It’s got nothing to do with energy,” Slot unconvincingly claimed afterwards on Sky Sports. He went into more detail in his press conference: “This game had nothing to do with running, this game had only to do with playing duels . . . You can judge a team, if they are tired, from the way they press - but there was nothing to press because they played over our press.”
But don’t duels also have something to do with energy?
The second-half rally has been a feature of Liverpool’s season but this time Slot proved unable to find a solution. Seven minutes into the second half Alexander Isak had the ball in the net after Burn again escaped MacAllister at a corner, but Bruno Guimaraes was called offside. Less than a minute later they scored for real, Isak sweeping home on the half-volley after Jacob Murphy outjumped Andy Robertson.
Liverpool’s response was flailing, Slot simply throwing on forward after forward in a chaotic jumble that recalled Louis van Gaal’s meltdown at Lansdowne Road in 2001, when the man who had updated total football for 1990s Ajax and Barcelona was reduced to punting long balls towards four extremely confused centre-forwards.
Four minutes into injury time Federico Chiesa pulled one back with a deft finish that made you wonder why Slot hasn’t given him more playing time. There ensued four minutes of gut-wrenching panic for the Newcastle fans, but Liverpool never threatened to score an undeserved equaliser.
“I don’t think it was a lucky win,” Howe said, accurately. “There’s different ways to win trophies. Today we won in the best way. We played a brilliant opponent, who’ve been the best team in the Premier League all season. And we were the better team.”
It’s been a painful week for Liverpool and for Arne Slot, who for the first few months seemed to get everything right. He likes to pick the same team every week and it has caught up with him.
When Liverpool took on PSG in Paris on March 5th, it was the sixth time this season that Slot had named the particular starting XI he chose that night. Jurgen Klopp never named a particular set of 11 players as many as six times in his entire 491-match career at Liverpool.
The Slot favoured-XI was battered in Paris but survived thanks to an Alisson miracle-show. Surprisingly, Slot proceeded to pick the same XI for the second leg. The match was deservedly lost.
The manager said it was the best game of football he’d ever been involved with, but most of the 60,000 at Anfield could remember being involved with better ones.
Five days later, against a Newcastle team that had rested since last weekend, Slot again chose the same midfield three and front three, and once again they looked tired and weak. Mohamed Salah had the first game of his eight-year Liverpool career in which he neither had a shot nor created a chance.
Take the example of Ryan Gravenberch, whose emergence in the defensive midfield position has been key to Liverpool’s title charge. Over the first 25 games of the season in league, cup and Champions League, Gravenberch was a dominant presence in midfield, averaging 68 touches per game. Over the last 10 matches that average has sunk to 50 - and he hasn’t had as many as 68 touches in any single match in that period: apparently what was once his average level is now beyond him.
Liverpool will surely stagger over the line in the league, but they will only start turning up for the big knockout games in the spring when Slot starts trusting his squad.
