Liverpool supervisor Arne Slot disregarded strategies his aspect’s 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United within the EFL Cup closing was the product of fatigue following their penalty shootout loss to Paris Saint-Germain within the Champions League.
The Reds had been favourites to say their first trophy below Slot, who has overseen an excellent first season in cost since taking on from Jurgen Klopp, with Liverpool 12 factors away from Arsenal on the prime of the Premier League.
However they had been undone by an outstanding efficiency from Newcastle, who took a 2-0 lead by targets from Dan Burn and Alexander Isak earlier than Federico Chiesa pulled one again in stoppage time.
An underwhelming Liverpool show got here 5 days after they let slip a first-leg lead over PSG of their last-16 tie, a pulsating second leg finally going all the way in which to penalties, wherein Gianluigi Donnarumma shone to ship the Ligue 1 leaders by.
Liverpool appeared bereft of power at Wembley, however Slot wouldn’t cite fatigue as an element, as a substitute pointing to a direct strategy from Newcastle that supervisor Eddie Howe admitted he had saved near his chest when the 2 sides met at Anfield final month as the principle purpose for his workforce’s demise.
“Mentally is at all times troublesome to guage,” Slot advised reporters when requested if his aspect had been drained.
“Had been we on Tuesday mentally or bodily drained? No, however this sport had nothing to do with working, this sport had solely to do with taking part in duels.
“And there was no depth when it comes to working on this sport in any respect, we can’t even decide it if we had been drained bodily, sure or no, as a result of we couldn’t press them.
“You possibly can decide a workforce if they’re drained in the event that they press, however there was nothing to press as a result of they performed over our press.
“In the event that they acquired a goal-kick or free-kick, each time they introduced it to our final line which led to plenty of set items.
“So the sport was gradual and never intense, so it’s troublesome to guage, for me, if we had been bodily prepared. Mentally, that may be a troublesome one.
“In case you take a look at the end result and the efficiency you may really feel it [the PSG game] did one thing to us, however I choose to take a look at how the sport went, and this sport went precisely how they needed it to be.
“A battle with plenty of duels, and plenty of duels by the air, and if we performed 10 instances a sport of soccer by the air towards them they win most likely 9 instances as they’re stronger within the air than us.”
Liverpool can have time to recover from the frustration of this week, with a world break permitting them the chance to regroup forward of the Merseyside derby with Everton on April 2.
On whether or not that break had come at time for his workforce, Slot mentioned: “We’re one of many largest golf equipment on this planet, Liverpool. Nevertheless it’s not for the primary time of their historical past, or within the final two seasons, that they’ve misplaced two video games in a row.
“That is a part of taking part in soccer, particularly if one in every of them is while you face the perfect workforce in Europe in the intervening time, and the opposite one is dealing with Newcastle, which is a really robust workforce in England.
“I might’ve liked to play subsequent week. However now the state of affairs is that they go to their nationwide groups, the place they’ve two extra video games once more. Then it’s most likely one-and-a-half weeks earlier than we face Everton, which is once more a workforce we already confronted. We all know how troublesome that one was. Let’s see.”
