Gary Neville and Roy Keane are both in agreement ahead of the Carabao Cup final between Liverpool and Newcastle United this weekend. The pair will meet at Wembley with Arne Slot hoping to secure his first trophy since arriving in the Premier League.
Liverpool is the hot favorite to win the game despite Trent Alexander-Arnold being out injured. Newcastle will also be missing a couple of key stars in the injured Sven Botman and the suspended Anthony Gordon.
As a result, both Neville and Keane believe that Liverpool will come out on top. They are both very confident that the Reds will be able to get over the line and win the first trophy of what could be a double this season.
“Here we go — I think Liverpool will win 2-1 or 2-0… 2-0 Liverpool,” Neville said on the Stick To Football podcast brought to you by Sky Bet. Ian Wright replied: “You’re not giving Alexander Isak a goal?”
“Do you know you know something? Newcastle never play well at Wembley,” Neville insisted. “When you watch Newcastle at Wembley, you see all them fans that have traveled like six, seven hours, you think go on and give them something, surprise them.”
And Roy Keane added: “3-1, yeah.” He also felt that it would be in favor of Liverpool, who was knocked out of the Champions League by PSG midweek.
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Earlier in the show, Neville said: “I can’t see Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk not being winners on Sunday. You know when you look at two players and you just think, who’s going to take that off them?”
Earlier this season, Jarell Quansah struggled at right-back as Liverpool drew 3-3 with Newcastle at St James’ Park. He might have to slot into that unfamiliar role again with Alexander-Arnold, Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez all missing.
But Newcastle has issues of its own. As well as Botman and Gordon, Lewis Hall — who has arguably been the best left-back in the Premier League this season — is set to be absent.
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“I think what he’ll do is he’ll put [Kieran] Trippier right back and [Tino] Livramento at left-back,” Alan Shearer said on the Rest Is Football podcast. “If it was me, I’d probably play Harvey Barnes on the left-hand side.
“[Jacob] Murphy and [Alexander] Isak, yeah. And the three in midfield, if they’re fit, would be Bruno [Guimaraes], Joelinton and [Sandro] Tonali. I think with Livramento’s pace, I think that’s why he’ll stick him in at left-back and against Mo Salah. He’s going to have to have a good game, isn’t he? No pressure.”
Liverpool.com says: It is definitely not going to be an easy game for Liverpool but the Reds should have enough to come out on top. Van Dijk insisted his team didn’t need any more motivation to win the game but losing to PSG will mean they want to put that right straight away. A similar performance will be enough to get the trophy over the line.
