Newcastle United have been left stewing on three dropped points.
For swathes of Sunday’s clash against Liverpool, Eddie Howe’s side dominated the game before Darwin Nunez struck a late brace to secure all three points for Jurgen Klopp’s men.
Despite playing against ten men for much of the game, Newcastle could not find a way through after Anthony Gordon’s first-half goal.
Granted, Alisson Becker pulled off a stunning save to deny Miguel Almiron and the forward also hit the post but not to have truly troubled Liverpool in the second-half was a huge disappointment.
Blaming any individual for what was a collective disappointment would be too much of course but Howe’s substitutions have been called into question.
Former Newcastle manager Alan Pardew criticised Howe’s decision to withdraw Gordon, Alexander Isak and Sandro Tonali for Harvey Barnes, Callum Wilson and Sean Longstaff respectively.
In fact, Howe had already spoken on the matter.
Eddie Howe admits he made a mistake vs Liverpool
Indeed, speaking to Match of the Day (via BBC Sport’s LIVE blog), Howe said: “I thought the momentum was shifting in that moment and so I made the changes. In hindsight would I have made them? Maybe not. But I had to make the decision I thought best at the time.”
The game management was very poor
With Tonali and Gordon in particular starring against Liverpool, it did seem a strange decision to take them off.
Of course, if Almiron puts his chance away, Liverpool surely find it too hard to come back from two goals down with ten men and the decision is never really thought of again.
Still, it’s a lesson for Howe.
Yes, Newcastle have a bigger squad now but perhaps its not always necessary to use it simply for the sake of it. With the Champions League still a while off, there was surely little need to keep bodies as fresh as they might have to be going forward.
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