'What was he thinking?'

Liverpool boss Arne Slot is copping most of the blame for playing clearly knackered players in the Carabao Cup final.

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Salah > Slot

So when is Arne Slot going to start getting any criticism for not having any kind of Plan B, nor being able to improve or inspire any other Liverpool attackers for when the Plan A of setting up the team to maximise the output from Mo Salah doesn’t work?

To be fair, it’s a hell of a Plan A that is going to win them the league, but I’d say that’s more down to Salah’s magnificence that any indication of Slot’s managerial skill.

Liverpool have now exited/lost 3 cup competitions because Slot has shown he has very few ideas what to do when Salah can’t get him out of jail, and they’d probably be fighting for a Champions’ League place instead of walking away with the league if Salah wasn’t so damned brilliant as often as he is.

I’ve felt for a while that this Liverpool title win has had the whiff of Van Persie’s first season at Man Utd: a ludicrously-talented goalscorer leading a well-drilled, well-organised, good-but-not-great team to a double digit points margin of victory in the league for their 20th title ahead of the team with the best defence and I think that’s what we’re going to get, with a similar failure to win the title again following after.

Why the Liverpool board aren’t throwing all the money in the world at Salah to extend his contract is beyond me, because I don’t see Slot having anywhere near the level of talent needed to re-shape this Liverpool team to make up for his output if/when he leaves.

Dan, Watford

READ: 16 Conclusions from the Carabao Cup final: On Joelinton, Isak, disappearing Salah, VVD woes and more

Liverpool’s players are f***ed

Slot perhaps deserves credit for avoiding the overuse injuries that we’ve had in past years, but it’s been clear in recent weeks that the players are gassed, and that is at least partially Slot’s fault for failing to rotate.

That was my take-away from the first PSG match in particular, that the whole team, especially Salah and the midfielders, looked jaded. Shame to end the season this way, but hopefully they’ll hold on for the league at least.

Henry, LFC

…Credit to Newcastle, like PSG they were the better team and deserved to win. We would’ve loved to win it but I do think it’ll mean a lot more to their lot so fair play. That showed on the pitch today.

That all said, what was Slot thinking? He’s watched the team get leggy and tired, physically and emotionally against PSG and then launched the same 11 into the final. It was no surprise that Elliot, Jones and Chiesa were the best looking players on the pitch.

He has barely rotated all season and I’ve always felt it was concerning and now it feels as though the chickens have come home to roost. I appreciate we have 2 weeks off until Everton but most of the squad is off on international duty so they’re getting more football in their legs.

It’s so weird because Jota used to bounce back from every injury and look great; this time he looks so awful and bereft of confidence. We can credit Slot for what he’s done with Gravenberch, Szoboslai and Salah but he then has to also accept criticism for the drop off in Jota.

Like Tuesday, it’s still clear that Diaz, Nunez and Robertson are not good enough for a first XI that hopes to win multiple trophies. Slot has had a great season and winning the league is a great achievement no other foreign manager has managed in their first season (possibly?) but he also needs to reflect and see his own areas to improve upon this season. It’s at least partly his fault that this week has gone as badly as it could have.

Minty, LFC

(You seem to have forgotten Antonio Conte, Carlo Ancelotti, Jose Mourinho and Manuel Pellegrini – Ed)

…The Slot machine seems to be broken outside of a domestic league at its lowest ebb in a long while.

Pete,(VVD dive lol) Cape Cod USA

Another victory for sportswashing, then

How Bruno and Joelinton get away with what they do is utterly beyond me.

Stu, Southampton

…I was so delighted that Newcastle won a trophy, I completely forgot about the human rights abuses associated with their owners.

Kind regards,

Simon, Germany

Newcastle fans are very chuffed though

Hello Football Lovers All Over The World!

The Magpies trophy drought is finally over. We have waited a long 70 years since we last lifted a major trophy in 1955 (beating Man City 3 – 1 in the FA Cup Final).

We even had to do it the hard way beating the best team in the Premier League this year. Over the years, I’ve been writing to Football365 predicting this moment & rival fans thought I was crazy, but I never stopped believing in Newcastle.

This is absolutely a day of monumental relevance to the Newcastle Family in particular, and also to the Football Community in general.

Now to the next target: The Premier League Title in 2027 (a hundred years after our last Top Tier Title in 1927).

If this is a dream, then I don’t want to wake up!

Andile Ndlebe, East London, SOUTH AFRICA

…Do I not like that.

I’d love it, love it if we beat them.

I’m away now to get me suit measured.

Beautiful from the toon, utterly beautiful! That midfield, they’ll probably run home tonight!

Love it.

Ratt Mitchie (never once believed that would happen) NUFC

…In my lifetime I’d never even seen us score a goal in a final until today, this is just incredible joy and the bars up here will be running dry tonight and likely the rest of the week, a deserved win and some incredible performances! There’s always naysayers but to lift this trophy we’ve had to play Liverpool, Arsenal, Forest, Chelsea & Brentford along with a lower league banana skin in waiting with Wimbledon.

We f**king won! we won the hard way! and we deserved it too.

Feeling absolute joy and happiness and the scenes here were incredible too, this hasn’t sunk in and in many ways I hope it doesn’t.

Love to you all.

AD, NUFC

…It’s been a while.

33 years for me, 70 years for some. 4 months for my infant son, who will never know what a trophy drought really is.

And what a way to do it – Wembley, versus our bogey team. No wins against them in 17.

But then to come out with an absolutely outstanding team performance.

Two snarling scrapping Brazilian Tyneside legends. One young fullback played out of position, pocketing the best forward in the world. An aging international who believed in the project before almost anyone else did, swinging in the perfect corner.

A big man from Blyth, boyhood fan, journeyman, finally seeing his dreams come true in his 30s, standing like a rock, and leaping like a salmon.

A star striker son of Eritrean emigres, with Swedish ice in his veins, who got his one chance, and took it. Twice.

A manager who everyone outside the club seemed to say he wasn’t top class. And everyone inside it, we always knew he was.

45,000 Geordies losing their minds.

The long long wait is over. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

Well done Eddie.

Roger, (HWTL), Newcastle in London

…The tears are dry for the moment, but I’m still a little verklempt, so this mail probably can’t express everything I’m feeling right now. I don’t care if it’s only the Carabao Cup, it’s still a trophy that everybody wants. Outside the Championship and the [wince] Intertoto Cup, it’s the club’s first competitive trophy of my lifetime, and it means…so very much. Damn, here come those tears again. Since before the final whistle, I’ve been welling up every ten minutes or so in joy and relief. I also got a little teary wishing that Miggy Almiron had been here today; alas, he had a previous engagement with Leonel Messi. Basically, anything at all can make me cry right now.

Eddie, Bruno, Isak, Burn, Tonali, hell, maybe everybody else on the pitch at Wembley today are now club legends, never to be forgotten. Not at a club like Newcastle United. Howe provided a bold strategy, and his players did exactly what he asked. It was a determined, purposeful performance that had win written all over it. Liverpool are a fantastic side, but the Magpies shushed them just like they did Arsenal.

My younger son and I went to the NUFC pub a half hour away in Vienna, VA and immediately realized there was no room for us, so we hustled home and got the feed on before the starting whistle. My older son — off at uni — sent me a selfie at the final whistle, and I’ve never seen him look so joyful in a photo. My nephew called me an hour after the whistle; he’d planned to go (in his stripes) to a Liverpool pub in Raleigh, NC with a Scouse friend, but the friend bailed out last night. Grayson shrugged and put $25 on Liverpool to win. He says it was the best $25 he ever spent; he’d been crying, too, and we had a moment.

Short of the days those boys were born, this has been the best day I’ve ever had. And it’s not over. I’m going to watch the replay when Paramount+ makes it available. The home leg of the semi-final win over Arsenal is playing in the background as I type this. I’ll watch the emotional player videos that weren’t on TV, and later, I’ll play some EA FC as the Ballon d’Or winner Newcastle deserves.

Sneer, if you will; it’s only the Carabao Cup. But it’s the first time I’ve ever seen my club win a trophy, and it feels like 30 years of devotion and disappointment have been vindicated. And it could be the beginning of a winning tradition.

Chris C, Toon Army DC (Today’s shirt was new, and is now an instant classic: TOONALI 8)

Obviously Stewie has a take…

Congrats to Newcastle! Thoroughly deserved. Bit confusing watching the delirious Geordies celebrating that final: isn’t finishing in second place in the league, 15 points behind the winners, more of a “generational” achievement Magpies?! I thought “everyone” would much rather finish first-placed Loser than win an actual trophy?! 😉 I’m sure you Geordies would trade that trophy and those memories for a Fake Title run or a 5-1 home win to Citeh!

After witnessing Liverpool’s back to back defenestrations to first PSG, then Newcastle, it reminds us that as excellent a team Liverpool are, they are eminently beatable. Which then circles back to the main question: just how shite is Mikel Arteta to have been rinsed so hard in the league like this?! Christ we didn’t even get to at least see the Easter Bunny before Antonio El Pulizon waved the white flag! FAKE EL FRAUDO!

I suspect Liverpool will get Isak in the summer, and the move will in part be financed by Santa Mikel Arteta’s latest pet project post-the Ashtray: a move for Darwin! The ashtray will get a luxury holder 🤣

Stewie Griffin (Eddie Howe has now also won more trophies than Arteta in five years! Didn’t spend £700m +, isn’t earning £15m a season. Joe Willock, deemed surplus to requirements by Arteta, left AFC and now has more trophies than Arsenal. ETH on a sabbatical and more successful than El Fraudo. Klopp is retired and still has a trophy more recently than El Pulizon! Peak Banter Club!!!! 😂😂😂 Kroenke shouldn’t give Arteta a penny more, he’s spunked a fortune on rubbish)

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