Newcastle United’s Dan Burn was instrumental in defeating Liverpool 2-1 at the Carabao Cup final, where his aerial prowess shone through to capitalize on set piece issues.
Explaining why Burn was able to head home the first goal, Arne Slot noted that little could be done considering Liverpool’s zonal marking strategy on corners. He specified that while five of his stronger players cover zones near the goal, three others, including the significantly shorter Alexis Mac Allister, are assigned for man marking.
Slot acknowledged Newcastle’s tactic and said: “Credit to Newcastle. I can explain. We play zonal so have five players zonally close to our goal, so if the ball falls there it’s always one of the five stronger players that attacks the ball. We have three players who then man-mark and Macca is one of them.
“Normally a player like Dan Burn runs into the zone. I’ve never seen in my life a player from that far away heading the ball with so much force into the far corner.
“Newcastle either hs to go far from our goal, which 99 of 100 times will never lead to a goal or has to arrive in our zone and then it’s an equal battle. Credit to him, he’s one of the few players who can score with his head from that distance.
“It was a disappointing result and a disappointing performance. It is completely different to how I felt after the PSG game [on Tuesday]. Losing twice in a row is something we have done for the first time, but that also comes with going into the latter stages of tournaments. PSG and Newcastle are two very good teams in their own styles. Very difficult teams to face.
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“It was a tough week but it was also a week where we extended our lead to 12 points from it being 10. It wasn’t all negative but the last two [results] were definitely not the way we wanted.
This game had only to do with playing duels and there was no intensity in terms of running at all. So you cannot even judge it if we were tired, yes or no, physically because we could not press them.
“You can judge a team if they are tired and if they press. But there was nothing to press because they played over our press. If they had a goal-kick and if they got a free-kick every time they brought it into our last line.
Liverpool’s position in the Premier League became increasingly precarious as Arsenal trimmed their lead down to 12 following a victory at home against Chelsea. Next up for Liverpool is a Merseyside derby when they welcome Everton to Anfield on April 2.
