That's cos you haven't thought about it properly. If you had you'd realise performances have been massively better against Liverpool since the take over and they've never outclassed us. In 22/23 away we were ahead against them away and they only won it 8 minutes into injury time, and last year at home they only won it injury too. Likewise we drew against them recently, again after being ahead twice.
This is huge for Eddie to make the call on how we play. That formation vs Arsenal was very difficult to work out, mainly for the opposition, I wonder if he’ll just look to tweak that again. Would mean dropping Joelinton for that match.
It’ll be interesting to see what he does but I do think you have to match Liverpool in the middle of the park and double up on their wingers - so realistically you need 13 players - but a 5-3-2 perhaps with Isak and Gordon on the counter to give them something to think about?
Joelinton, is like, a big positive, I'm sure he'll play. He can analyse last night's match, but the fact Spurs were utterly terrible makes it hard to draw too much. We have the bonus that we play them away in a few weeks, and whatever that result, Howe will be able to properly analyse them.
I don't think it's big for Howe because we aren't favourites. If we could get to a final as favourites one day that would be nice, but in this competition they've stacked the draw, so that's now out of the question. I mean, Newcastle have had to beat 3 of the current top 4 in the Premier league, just to reach a final and play the best team in the world. Howe has punched above his weight to get this far.
No, he's established himself as a very good couch, he's there on merit. We've been by far the better team in all of the league cup finals we've played this season. In terms of the final 2 years ago, or probably more people were expecting us to beat Man U than are expecting us to beat Liverpool this time around, but also our team is far better, so we're better equipped to play the better team. Bring it on.
The point I'm making is that he has over achieved with this squad simply by getting this far. Arsenal and Chelsea are a higher wage squad. Roland is implying that Howe has something riding on the final, but he doesn't. You're creating an argument that was never presented.
Not what I meant, this isn’t make or break for Howe in any way, I meant he has a huge tactical call to make and I don’t envy him for it! That said, if Liverpool play to their best then it doesn’t really matter what Howe does.
Newcastle will most likely lose the final, but they club's getting closer. I predict potentially many more heartaches, before eventually maybe getting to a final and winning one.
The margins probably aren't huge, so we have a chance, but it's on the day, and Liverpool are most likely to be victorious. There's quite a bit of time between now and then, so we need to hope none of our best players get injuries.
Quietly I'm almost happier with Liverpool, if it was Spurs then all of a sudden there's an expectation and pressure to win the cup whereas with Liverpool it's more hopes and dreams. As people have said our team this year is remarkably better than when we played Man U in the final 2 years ago: Pope and Dubravka available - no third choice keeper who hasn't played in 2 years Tino and Hall as Full backs is a marked upgrade. Tonali man - ****ing Sandro Tonali the Italian Stallion. A. Gordon is eligible for this one. We've got that future Balon d'or winner Murphinho in the squad now linking telepathically with Isak who is now fully bedded in having literally been here 6 months to the day, last final. Hell even Joelinton has been playing CM more than 12 months now and is a Brazilian international now. Been a long time since we beat Liverpool, we'll get one over them eventually - why not in March?
It's a much harder final than the last one and we meekly surrendered in that. They will be getting all the decisions from the ref and VAR too don't forget. Sorry like, not confident at all, been burned too many times. Salah will score in another 2-0 defeat. Howe the nearly man again. Prove me wrong please ffs.
