Newcastle ended their long waiting time for a trophy by beating Liverpool on Sunday and also stopped a decade -long winless run against the Reds in the process, making a side with a 12 -point lead at the top of the Premier League more ordinary than almost everyone this season.
The Eddie Howe team limited Liverpool to a single shot for the break and an XG of 0.89 in general to achieve a convincing victory on the side of Arne Slot in a tactical and physical master class near Wembley.
What did Newcastle do to suppress their opponents and to win comfortably – and what was missing from a team that was the runaway leaders of the Premier League?
The effective press of Newcastle
In earlier matches against Liverpool this season, Newcastle frustrated to Liverpool and struck them during the break.
But against one side that had gone the distance in the midweek against PSG, with the physical and mental tension that meant, Howe seemed to feel encouraged and sent his team out to fully benefit by pressing the Reds High.
That tested the determination of Liverpool, and whether it is a lack of trust or fatigue – or more probably both – their reaction was to go long, with their share of long passages almost 50 percent on their average in the Premier League season.
Going directly in itself is not necessarily a problem, especially with the passing quality that Liverpool has – but not when they are rushed, forced by the Newcastle press and with the Reds who miss their normal calmness. Exactly a third of their 57 long balls found a teammate far under their seasonal average of 48 percent.
The energy and pace of the front of Newcastle set the tone, but it was in midfield where the physical struggle was really won. The Brazilian duo of Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes have set up the center of the park, 27 duels between them and each won nine – in both cases, the best number of everyone on the field.
Arne Slot brought when he wondered if it meant that the magpies had worked harder than his lace and said: “They have won more duels than we do. Is that elaborating?
“Or is that one of their biggest qualities, to play so many air dips and to win these physical duels?”
Whatever the reason, Ryan Gravenberch looked a shadow of himself to the point lock, was willing to bring him to the middle 10 minutes after the break, while Alexis Mac Allister never got a grip on his South American counterparts.
Salah oppressed in another final
Mo Salah's Run without an open game goal in the final took place at Wembley, but more worrying was how anonymous Talisman of Liverpool, and their most consistent competition winner was during the 90 minutes.
Everyone has quiet competitions, but this was one of the least effective in almost eight years in Liverpool, at a time when they needed him the most.
Salah only had one touch in the Newcastle Box All Game and did not register a shot in 90 minutes – he had at least two in every Premier League match he played this season.
The Egyptian was not helped by the lack of a real width behind him in the absence of Trent Alexander -Arnold and Conor Bradley – with 45 percent of Liverpool's attacks along their left flank.
That hungry him from a source of possession and also prevented him from double Tino Livramento, who had a comfortable game at the left-back and rarely suffered from the 32-year-old.
The most common passing combination of Liverpool was Virgil van Dijk that Andy Robertson fed 16 times during the 90 minutes on the other side – where the Scotsman almost double the number of entries and fits in last third place compared to Jarell Quansah.
Liverpool's stubbornness of corners
The permanent question of the final was why Mac Allister was left to mark Burn in Corners, even when it was already more open before his head that this was an aeriamatch with only one winner.
The gigantic geordie connected itself with two corners, both rear heads against the Argentinian 10 centimeters shorter than he, before it turned out to be three strikes and out for Liverpool when Burn Caoimhin Kelleher defeated his next efforts for the interval, because Howe and his coaching found an innovative way to find an innovative way.
“What they do with these angles is (Ibrahima) Konate and Van Dijk from the game,” said Gary Neville of Sky Sports. “They are in the six-year box and protect that area. But Burn, who is a giant, continues to cross the rear (Kieran) Trippier's driven crosses.”
Mac Allister remained on him after the break and was almost made to pay again when he easily struck the Liverpool midfielder to meet the pull-back of guimaraes from a different angle. Kelleher kept that effort outside with Alexander Isak who tapped the rebound – before an offside flag cut off their parties.
The mixed marking system of the Reds that they generally served this season well – in the Premier League they only admitted one goal from corners, a less than the next best Aston Villa.
That was enough to defend the decision to keep Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate Zonally closer to their own goal and to run the risk of burning further punishment.
“We play zonal, so we have five players, zonal, close to our goal,” he said. “So if the ball falls there, there is always one of the five stronger players who are going to attack that ball. And we have three players who man-mark and [Alexis Mac Allister] Is one of them.
“Normally a player like Burn or another goes to the zone – and I think he is an exception to that, like I have never seen a player in my life who leads the ball in the far corner with so much power.”
Inevitable fatigue begins
Although Slot denied fatigue had anything to do with the poor performance of his players at Wembley, there is no doubt that they have been driven into the ground in a period of two and a half months since the turn of the year.
This included both the semi-final of the Carabao Cup and the final of Sunday, 11 Premier League matches and three Champions League matches-plus for half an hour for the extra-time in the last-16-leg defeat of last week against PSG.
In recent weeks, Liverpool experienced a drop-off-she found a goal at home in Southampton before a half-way change and even in their first legs on PSG, they owed their victory to Alisson for his nine Rescue Most A Reds goalkeeper made in a single game in more than a decennium.
“Were we mentally or physically tired on Tuesday?” Early ending after this last defeat. “No, but this game had nothing to do with running.
“This game only had to do with playing duels and there was no intensity in terms of running in this game, so you can't even judge it if we were physically tired because we couldn't print them.”
Apart from Howe's side who enjoys a free week, while Liverpool was taken on Tuesday evening, each of the Outfield of Newcastle XI on average played the equivalent of three games less than their opponents played since the turn of the year.
Public has perhaps defended his selection decisions, but behind closed doors he can consider whether a few rest days would have been useful for individual members of his team at different times, given the week they have just endured.