
A large part of fans in Newcastle has never seen their side take a trophy – but Sunday could finally be the day.
It is 70 years ago that the Toon celebrated some silverware when they defeated Manchester City to win the FA Cup from 1955.
The Fairs Cup triumph of 1968-69 aside, the magpies are completely robbed of titles.
But on Sunday, the Eddie Howe team has the chance to finally break that terrible drought when they take on Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final in Wembley.
And in the latest episode of Sunssport's tactics, our tactic expert Dean Scoggins looks at where Newcastle can harm the Reds and ultimately end their silverware misery.
Here are the three top observations of Dean …
1. Isak's 'Go, Stop, Go' can hurt from Dijk .. again
Alexander Isak did a whole, very cool thing against Virgil van Dijk when they played in St James' Park earlier in the season, which ended with 3-3 … I'm going to call it “Go, Stop, Go”.
We have set up a fairly comparable formation for both teams as Set up as 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, fairly comparable.
But the most important thing we will see immediately is Liverpool's back four will be against the attacking three of Newcastle.
Isak will be the man who tries to accept it in Ibrahima Konate and Van Dijk himself, because Newcastle man goes for humans in many other areas on the field – Howe supports them to win individual duels all over the field.
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But what Isak did in that first game in St James' Park against Van Dijk and Konate, is moving forward, in the first place, making these two defenders back.
Then he stops so that he can receive the ball … and then he goes again. So then he confronted you as a defender.
And then, the defender starts to reduce the gap like Van Dijk would of course do? And when he picks up the ball, he runs aside, where he scored his goal from earlier in the season.
Of course, when the defenders get into a great position and block his path, and he receives the ball in feet, then you get your runner on this side, which is probably Harvey Barnes in the cup final because we don't have Anthony Gordon.
And then you get Jacob Murphy the other way in the other side in the other side and walks in these channels because Isak has made that narrow space there.
Do Van Dijk and Konate make a decision between them? You know, like the old one-on-one defense: “You go to him and I will fall” …
Or as soon as they become flat, they have a problem because he starts running between the outside of them.
He will be a big handful.
2. Joelinton Surprise key to stop Salah
Newcastle has clearly received a problem with Lewis Hall injured, they have to move Livramento to the left.
It is a pity, because what they have done against Liverpool is almost a back of five by having Hall playing the left midfield role and then playing Burn Left Back.
Burn comes in and Hall goes back to the left, which creates a back five, which means that Mo Salah has a double scenario.
They don't have that because Burn will have to play if the left in the middle and Livramento becomes the man who becomes one by one.
The most important man here is Joelinton, who will play three to the left of that midfield – and there will have to be a decision between him and burn about who will be the double man.
That will be communication between the two .. Double him cost it what it costs when you can.
But the other tactical thing that I find very important to note is that when Liverpool has the ball in defensive positions, they can be pretty direct.
Now Newcastle High, man-to-man, they go to Salah as quickly as possible, and the most important thing from Newcastle is defensive point of view that they leave him from the goal.
They must ensure that they immediately involve him. Newcastle is a very fit, very physical, very dynamic team and this approach suits them because they can do that and not be afraid if the ball goes behind it.
So those three left -wing, left -sided players will be the key, three of them together, try to stop Salah.
3. Howe is very brave and smart tactics
Eddie Howe is incredibly smart. When Newcastle Arsenal defeated in the semi-final, the line-up was much more a back five.
But they identified that Arsenal often takes place via Declan Rice in that game.
So instead of letting a midfielder go and push on rice and open the passing lanes, Fabian Schar came out completely to press him on the edge of Arsenal's own area and caused many problems.
It was a brave, brave tactic, but this is what I think they can do against Liverpool.
What they are doing now is that Bruno Guimaraes is not always the one who is deep, he will start to press with the attack.
They have Isak, Guimaraes and the Wingers who print, and then you end with a midfielder who also pushes up.
And the defense does not push up. So that leaves a huge course of space for the defense.
But because they are so brave with the press and they go everywhere man-to-man in attacking areas, it is inevitable what happens a keeper or a defender will play over the top.
As soon as the ball goes into the air, the defenders will attack the Free Liverpool man in the air and then they will try to win the ball back.
As soon as the ball is in the air, the two hard -working midfielders of Newcastle will return immediately.
And then they win the ball back, they go to your 4V4 in the other direction.
So by creating this enormous space that the midfielders have to cover, they say the fitter of our midfield than yours. We are going to win more duels than you. And then we will win the ball again by pressing high, but not pressing the defense.
So I will be really intrigued if they do that at Wembley at that massive pitch and how long they can keep track of that intensity.
But by creating that large space and being very dedicated in the press, they can have some joy. It's a cup final, right? Go win it, guys.
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