Eddie Howe reflects on what happened at Anfield – Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0 | OneFootball

Eddie Howe has been reflecting on Wednesday night at Anfield.

Honest as ever, the United boss analysing Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0.

The champions-elect moving 13 points clear at the top of the table.

Whilst Eddie Howe and his Newcastle United players left to ponder how the game got away from them.

Eddie Howe reflecting on Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0:

“I thought we played OK, decent performance, [but] disappointed with the goals we conceded.

“The first goal, we don’t track him into the box.

“We are fighting in the game after that to try and get the next goal.

“But then we do exactly the same thing. Two soft goals.

“Callum Wilson will always back himself and we back him to take the chances, they’re not easy opportunities. He played well tonight, led the line and played well.

“I think what let us down was the two goals we conceded.

“We should never concede from those situations. We’ve got enough players back, we just don’t mark the men.

“We were just two yards off very good players in the box and they punished us.

“I was really disappointed with that aspect of our play, but I thought in between the boxes, we were competitive.

“It wasn’t our best performance from an attacking sense but I thought we had moments and chances.

“Really disappointed with that aspect of our play.

“Between the two boxes we were competitive tonight.

“Our final ball let us down.”

Eddie Howe on having no shots on target:

“Not good, can’t sit here and say we planned that.

“We had opportunities, obviously you’re not going to get an abundance of chances here, so when you do you have to take them and we didn’t do that.”

Eddie Howe asked if any lessons learned for facing Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final:

“You always learn.

“Sometimes you learn more in defeat than victory and two games against them this season, we have been competitive, but we have to perform better than today if we want to win the trophy.

“We need to find our best rhythm again, we have a few players out missing, hopefully we can get them back.

“Big games, big moments in our season.

“We are still in both cups and we want to stay that way.”

Eddie Howe asked for updates on injured trio Alexander Isak, Sven Botman, and Joelinton:

“It goes without saying how important [Alexander] Isak is to us.

“It was a late decision, around midday today, he felt his groin.

“We didn’t want to take a risk with so many big games to play, so we had a tactical shift, Callum Wilson came in, and we did all right. I have no problem with that. We don’t envisage it being a big problem for him [Alexander Isak].

“I had a chat with him [Isak] around lunchtime to see how he felt. He knew he was feeling something yesterday, we hoped today he would recover overnight but he didn’t.”

“I think they [Botman and Joelinton] will be there or thereabouts for Sunday [against Brighton].

“They haven’t trained with the team yet but we’ll see.

“It would be a massive boost.”

Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0 – Wednesday 26 February 2025 8.15pm

(Stats via BBC Sport)

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Liverpool:

Szoboszlai 11, Mac Allister 63

Possession was Newcastle 39% Liverpool 61%

Total shots were Newcastle 3 Liverpool 12

Shots on target were Newcastle 0 Liverpool 3

Corners were Newcastle 2 Liverpool 4

Touches in the box Newcastle 16 Liverpool 29

Newcastle team v Liverpool:

Pope, Livramento (Trippier 69), Schar, Burn, Hall, Bruno (Longstaff 88), Tonali (Miley 69), Willock (Barnes 68), Gordon, Wilson (Osula 69), Murphy

Subs:

Dubravka, Ruddy, Krafth, Targett

(Match Report – Nothing to get upset about – Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0 – Read HERE)

(Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0 – Instant Newcastle United fan/writer reaction – Read HERE)