Eddie Howe watched as Newcastle United lost at Anfield.
Liverpool won 4-1 when the final whistle blew.
A match in which Newcastle United were by far the better team in the first forty minutes and were at least worth the 1-0 lead that Anthony Gordon had given them.
Just two quick Liverpool goals in the 41st and 43rd minutes changed the match and the final result.
Eddie Howe described what he had seen in those first forty minutes; “I think we played really well in that opening phase of the match. Really dominant, strong, territory was really good. We didn’t create a lot of chances in that period, but we were the better team and deservedly scored.”
As I said before, those goals for the hosts in the 41st and 43rd minutes turned the entire match on its head.
Eddie Howe asked if his team had ‘imploded’ in those few minutes; “Imploded? I don’t know if that’s the right word but we didn’t defend well enough for those two goals and we’ll go through both of them and pick them apart. That’s what happens here though. If you get the crowd into the game and we did that, before you know it, we’re chasing the game.”
Reflecting on what happened, the NUFC boss added; “We are very disappointed because I thought it was a strong performance and 4-1 is very tough for us. We scored a great goal, started very strongly and formed a strong counter-attack.”
The summer was of course dominated by transfer sagas.
Eddie Howe made a bid to buy Hugo Elitike to complement or replace Alexander Isak, with both strikers ending up at Anfield.
Isak watched from the sidelines at Anfield as it was Ekitike who scored the two quick goals before half-time that transformed this match.
Eddie Howe gives an honest assessment of what happened; “You have to give Hugo Ekitike credit… but our organization is usually good and we didn’t cover ourselves in glory. Important moments in the match let us down… we are kicking ourselves.”
We all knew that United were in for an incredibly tough week of around four weeks, with seven of the eight games away from home and in most cases quality opposition.
The defense was excellent against PSG, but individual errors undermined Newcastle at Anfield.
Eddie Howe provides this overview; “What has cost us today is the way we have conceded goals and normally, according to our very high standards, we wouldn’t be conceding goals like this. It’s been a problem for us all season and we can’t ignore that. Ideally we would have played a little differently today but we were really struggling with injuries so we went the way we did and I was happy with the attitude of the players. We have seen some really positive signs that can help us in the future and we have to keep looking. We are in a difficult time. period with a lot of away games, so we will be very closely tuned and hope that we can solve our away form and that in the next games we can come up with solutions to help us move forward.’
Eddie Howe changed his personnel and formation from the PSG match.
With Gordon, Barnes and Trippier replacing Woltemade, Miley and Botman.
The Head Coach explained that his decisions were partly forced and partly by choice
Eddie Howe; “We wanted to go for real pace against their backline. That was the idea behind the selection. Anthony Gordon played very well… not only his goal, but his all-round game, his athleticism and his technical ability, I think it helped the team. We gave them problems. We couldn’t use Sven Botman and Lewis Miley, so the team selection and formation was forced on us. Sven had a tight thigh and we were advised not to use them. With Lewis he couldn’t bend his knee to keep himself fit to explain.”
Despite that late turnaround in the first half, Newcastle United came out after the break and did well until Malick gifted Thiaw possession on 67 minutes and Wirtz set up Liverpool’s victory.
Eddie Howe said that at half time; “The message was that we are still very much in the game and have to keep passing the ball. We felt like we were causing them problems. Our athleticism was very strong today. We started the second half very strongly.”
The schedule doesn’t get any easier as United now play Man City on Wednesday evening and need to overturn a two-goal deficit in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.
#dominant #strong #territory #good.. #Eddie #Howe #reflects #Liverpool #Newcastle