Arne Slot insisted Newcastle did not want to win the Carabao Cup final more than his Liverpool team but admitted the Reds allowed the game to pan out “exactly the way” their opponents wanted it to.
Slot said Liverpool were outplayed by Newcastle at the Magpies’ “natural game” of winning duels, as the Reds were beaten 2-1 in Sunday’s showpiece fixture at Wembley.
The defeat gave Newcastle their first major domestic trophy for 70 years and limited Liverpool to a maximum of one piece of silverware this season in the Premier League, with the club boasting a 12-point lead in the title race with nine games to go.
Liverpool delivered one of their worst performances of the season in the Carabao Cup final, with Federico Chiesa’s stoppage-time goal not enough to prevent Newcastle from getting their hands on the trophy thanks to efforts either side of half-time by Dan Burn and Alexander Isak.
“A disappointing result and a disappointing performance,” Slot said afterwards. “It’s completely different to how I felt after the Paris Saint-Germain game [when Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League last 16 on penalties at Anfield on Tuesday].
“Losing two games in a row is something we’ve done probably for the first time, but it probably comes with being in the latter stages of competitions.
“Even Liverpool can lose football games. We were outplayed, in their style. Today it wasn’t about running; it was more about duels.
“This game went exactly the way they wanted it to, with a lot of fight and a lot of duels. This game had no intensity, so you cannot even judge if we were tired physically. There was nothing to press because they played over our press. The game was slow.”
Asked whether Newcastle had simply wanted it more, given their long barren spell in terms of silverware, Slot replied: “No, it’s 70 years since they last won a trophy, but that’s for the fans.
“Players have 15 years to play football and want to win every single trophy they are competing for. That’s also what we want.
“It’s a game that went just the way they wanted it to go.”
