Eddie Howe knew that he had a big call to make, literally, after Newcastle’s defeat to Liverpool and immediately reached out to Loris Karius in the wake of Nick Pope’s sending off.
Howe makes Karius call after Newcastle defeat
The Athletic have reported what Howe did after full time at St James’ Park on Saturday knowing that his fourth-choice ‘keeper was about to be thrown into a huge storm in the upcoming week.
Loris Karius was not involved in the match day squad on Saturday and had instead trained that morning. When the dust settled after the defeat to Liverpool, Howe picked up the phone to speak to the former Liverpool man to make sure he was in the right mindset to face the tough week ahead.
Thankfully, as The Athletic reports, Eddie Howe found Karius, who is “a relaxed character behind the scenes” to be as ready as he could be.
It’s hard to imagine what must be going through Karius‘ head right now. Going from being the back-up’s back-up to playing in a cup final at Wembley in the space of a week.
That’s what these guys train for, and it’s not like the reserve goalkeepers aren’t involved in the day-to-day training. Each day they will train as if they’re playing, pushing the first-team ‘keepers to be their best, and they couldn’t do that if they didn’t present a genuine threat to their first-team place.
Howe has faith – so should we
Additionally, Karius has plenty of big game experience, even if he is infamous for his exploits in one game in particular, he has played many times in the Champions League other than that fateful final, as well as many other big games for Liverpool and Besiktas.
The fact that he’s not played a competitive game in two years shouldn’t be too much of an issue. He looked solid in December when he played for the Magpies in their 5-0 win over Al-Hilal, making a couple of top saves in that game, even earning an 8/10 in our player ratings.
As much as Eddie Howe has said he wasn’t comfortable with letting Karl Darlow leave on loan in January, he wouldn’t have sanctioned the move if he didn’t have faith in those behind him in the pecking order, and if he believes Karius is ready to step up, then who are we to question him?
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