Liverpool’s manager, Arne Slot, made his 2-1 Newcastle United defeat in the EFL Cup final was the product of fatigue after his penalty shootout in Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.
The Reds were favorite to claim their first trophy under the reception, which has overseen an excellent first season in charge since Jurgen Klopp, with Liverpool 12 points away from Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.
But they were overthrown by a wonderful performance by Newcastle, who scored 2-0 with goals from Dan Burn and Alexander Isak before Federico Chiesa pulled a back time.
A Liverpool sluggish display came five days after they let them slide a first leg over the PSG in their last decade
Liverpool seemed not to have energy energy on Wembley, but Splot would not mention fatigue as a factor, instead of showing an immediate approach from Newcastle that director Eddie Howe admitted that he had kept close to his chest when the two sides met at Anfield last month as his master.
“Mental is always difficult to judge,” Slot told reporters when asked if his side was tired.
“We were the third mentally or naturally tired? No, but this game had nothing to do with running, this game only had to do with the Duels game.
“And there was no tension on running in this game at all. We can’t judge it if we were tired of course, yes or no, because we couldn’t push them.
“You can judge a team if they are tired if they push, but there was nothing to push because they were playing over our guy.
“If they received a baptism or a free kick, every time they brought it to our last line that led to many pieces.
“So the game was slow and not intense, so it’s hard to judge, for me, if we were naturally ready. Mentally, that’s difficult.
“If you look at the result and the performance you may feel (the PSG game) did something for us, but I prefer to look at how the game went and this game went exactly how they wanted it to be.
“A race with lots of duels and many single in the air and if we played 10 times a football game through the air against them they probably win nine times as they are stronger in the air than us.”
Liverpool will have time to overcome this week’s frustration, with an international break that will allow them to gather in front of the Derby Merseside with Everton on April 2.
Regarding whether this break had come in a good time for his team, Slot said: “We are one of the largest clubs in the world, Liverpool. But it is not for the first time in their history, or in the last two times, that they have lost two consecutive games.
“This is part of football, especially if one of them is when you face the best team in Europe right now, and the other is facing Newcastle, which is a very strong team in England.
“I would like to play next week. But now the situation is that they go to their national teams, where they have two games again. Then it’s probably one and a half weeks before we face Everton, which is again a team we already encountered. We know how difficult it was. Let’s see.”
