Newcastle star Bruno Guimaraes has hailed Liverpool’s midfield ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, insisting two players in particular are having just as big an effect as Mohamed Salah.
The two sides of course meet at Wembley this weekend, with Arne Slot looking to win his first piece of silverware as the Reds’ head coach. Liverpool will be the favorite, although the midweek exit from the Champions League at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain has added another layer of intrigue to the meeting.
Newcastle will not need telling who the Reds’ biggest threat will be, with Salah enjoying a remarkable season that has put him in contention for this year’s Ballon d’Or. The Egyptian has 32 goals and 22 assists from 42 appearances in all competitions, putting him out in front of the likes of Erling Haaland and the Magpies’ own Alexander Isak this season.
But it’s not just Salah that Newcastle will have to be wary of, and Guimaraes is only too aware of that. The Brazilian will almost certainly start at Wembley on Sunday, and he’s expecting a tough battle against Liverpool’s midfielders.
“They are one of the best teams in the world, they have a midfield who pass a lot of good balls to Salah to shine,” Guimaraes told Sky Sports.
“But it’s not just Salah, it’s the midfield which is making them shine as well.
“They have good players. They can defend, attack, they keep the ball very well. They have been great this season – especially [Alexis] Mac Allister and [Ryan] Gravenberch, they’ve been playing out of their skin.”
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Liverpool.com says: Guimaraes is right to highlight Liverpool’s midfield, and you can certainly throw Dominik Szoboszlai in for some praise as well given his recent performances. That trio has made a huge difference, especially when you consider the state the Reds were in before they arrived in 2023.
The only concern at the moment though is just how much work they’re putting in – Guimaraes saying they’ve “playing out of their skin” would be putting it lightly.
It has looked in recent games as though the sheer workload this season might be catching up with the midfielder – Gravenberch especially, who hasn’t hit the heights he did earlier in the campaign. That has to be a clear sign for Liverpool that, while there might be other priorities to tend to in the summer, the midfield still needs bolstering.
