Arne Slot on Liverpool’s ‘zonal’ issue defending Dan Burn for Newcastle’s opener | OneFootball

Arne Slot says he has never seen anything like Dan Burn’s opener in his life after the defender managed to evade Liverpool’s zonal marking from corners to put Newcastle ahead in the Carabao Cup final.

On the stroke of half-time, Burn headed Newcastle ahead with an impressive header after being left unmarked in the Liverpool penalty area from a corner.

It was just what the Magpies deserved after dominating the opening exchanges, and Slot explained in detail how Burn was allow to score from where he did.

“Credit to Newcastle but I can explain,” Slot said. “We play zonal. We have five players zonally close to our goal and it the ball falls there, it is always one of the five players going to attack the ball and we have three players that man-mark and Macca is one of them.

“Normally a player like Dan Burn runs to the zone because normally, and I think he is an exception because I have never seen in my life, a player from that far away heading a ball with so much force into the far corner.

“That is part of logic that either they have to go far away from our zone which 99 out of a 100 times will never lead to a goal or they have to arrive in our zone and then it’s an equal level, if you call if like this. Credit to him, he is one of the few players who can score a goal from that distance with his head.”

Slot also said the overall performance from his side was not up to scratch, compounding a poor week for the Reds, who were also knocked out of the Champions League by PSG.

“Disappointing result, disappointing performance. Completely different to how I felt after the PSG game. Losing twice in a row is something we do for the first game but that also something to do with coming into the latter stages of the tournament.