Howe on Newcastle snatching late draw against Liverpool

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Howe on Newcastle snatching late draw against Liverpool  04/12/2024  St James' Park, Newcastle, UK

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00:00Where do you start with that one? A fascinating, entertaining game of football, do you feel you should have won it?

00:11Mixed. Mixed emotions. Part of me feels we should have won it, a big part of me.

00:19And part of me is of course pleased we didn't lose either because it was such a late goal for us.

00:24But just genuinely very pleased with the performance, much more attacking output, much better feel about the team,

00:31really good energy, really good quality performance against, for me, the best team we've played so far this season in the Premier League.

00:38So a big jump forward I think for us.

00:41Did they have the sort of look of champions the way they came back into that game?

00:45I don't know, I think it's a difficult thing for me to focus on, I'm only focused on us.

00:50Certainly their substitutions gave us a problem with Trent's attacking quality and potency with the ball,

00:57certainly gave us an issue down that side of the pitch.

01:01Disappointed with the goals we conceded, but I don't think that should overtake my general feeling and emotion,

01:08which is that's much more like us and if we can hit those levels consistently we're going to win a lot of games.

01:13Two pretentious decisions from an e-commerce perspective.

01:16A trip on, what looked like a trip on, and Klondike's attack inside the box,

01:19and then the referee ended the game when he did.

01:22What are your thoughts on that, please?

01:24I thought it was a penalty on Alex, but I haven't seen a replay, that was just an initial thought.

01:30I was surprised by the final whistle because I think we spent around about two minutes on a free-kick in extra time,

01:35so I was expecting seven minutes to be played.

01:39I think it's 5.15 when he's blown, so that was a blow because we looked like we were in a good position.

01:45Thanks, Luke. Damien and then George.

01:48Obviously Mo Salah was very good today, he's finishing,

01:51but when Alex is in that kind of form, is he as good as anyone around?

01:56Yeah, I think it was Alex's best performance of the season for us today.

02:01First of all, let's take his goal, it was a goal out of nothing really for us,

02:04and I think this season we've missed those.

02:06I think last season he scored regularly goals that were probably not expected to score,

02:11and those moments of magic can swing games your way,

02:14and I think that was a massive step towards doing that tonight.

02:17But then he was elusive to Mark, he was difficult to pick up, he was popping up all over the place.

02:23Dribbling with the ball, he's a great dribbler, so it was great to see those qualities back in his game,

02:27I just thought it was a top performance from him.

02:29For most of us, it was a certain vintage,

02:32so as a reminder of the 4-3 smack in the mirror, did it for you?

02:36Well, I was hoping it would be one of those moments,

02:38and that was going through my mind late in the game when we equalised.

02:41I'm thinking we might get one more chance here,

02:44and I thought the counter-attack was that chance, but obviously it wasn't meant to be.

02:48Thanks, Damien. We'll go to George and then Leroy.

02:50From the start, it felt like a team with a lot of grit,

02:53is there any frustration on your behalf that it's come from the performance

02:58that we saw at the Palace, that consistency is just so elusive?

03:05Yes, and that's very much in my head, because tonight we're everything that we want to be.

03:11We weren't perfect, but we're everything we want to be in terms of attitude,

03:14body language, demeanour, energy, pressing, attitude.

03:18I have to say, I don't think Palace was as bad as maybe the perception is of that game,

03:26because we were 1-0 up with seconds left,

03:28and if we win that game I think there's a totally different view on it.

03:31But I understand that perception always changes with results.

03:35West Ham's last half an hour I thought was the low point for me.

03:40But, yes, we need to hit the type of standards we did today consistently,

03:44and that is the challenge now for the players to deliver.

03:47As a manager, I guess you want to know what to expect from your team,

03:52because it feels like this season you've not been able to...

03:57Yes, I think that's a fair assessment, and I have made that clear to the players.

04:03But we have to find a solution together, me included, coaching staff.

04:07We always move forward together, whatever the outcome,

04:10and we're always trying to find solutions,

04:12because there's always issues and problems you have to solve.

04:15We want to be the best team that we're capable of being.

04:17I think we're on our way towards that.

04:19From the start of the season to now we've improved steadily.

04:22I hope that improvement continues as we go into a key month.

04:28Thanks, George. Lee Ryder then, Craig Hall.

04:32Is a 4-1-0 win not tempting at all?

04:36Give our discussion before the game.

04:39Yeah, it's ended 3-0, but there would be no difference in the preparation for me

04:45and the players in terms of what we want to deliver on a regular basis.

04:49I wasn't standing there saying,

04:51the lads know we want to create and score goals,

04:55and we know we want to play with a fast dynamic intensity,

04:59but sometimes the game, for whatever reason, just doesn't deliver that.

05:02Crystal Palace would probably be one of those games

05:04where we didn't get our flow going,

05:06but we were winning the game with the last seconds of the game.

05:09But I was pleased to see that dynamic in our game.

05:12We need to create and score,

05:14and I thought our attacking players all delivered a really good performance today.

05:17Our midfield was really strong against a really dynamic midfield that they possess.

05:21I thought we lived with them, so a big credit to our midfield.

05:24I also thought, bizarrely, although we conceded three goals in the main,

05:27we defended pretty strongly, especially in the first half.

05:29I thought it was a really good defensive performance.

05:31Obviously we had issues in the second half that we'll have to reflect on.

05:35On that P7 strike, it was 70 miles an hour,

05:39can you still stand back and avoid those effects?

05:42Yeah, as I said earlier, it's great to have one of those moments from Alex,

05:45because those moments of quality he does possess,

05:50and he's done consistently for us.

05:52Maybe not so much this season, those clinical goal-mile strikes from distance,

05:57but he's more than capable of doing that,

05:59and that's why he can make the difference for us.

06:01Excellent. Craig?

06:03You touched on it briefly, but the midfield three,

06:05five games ago you went away from that three as a combination,

06:09you've gone back to it today, why did you go back to it,

06:12and was that Hiddleston's big plan to play together,

06:14given all of the debate around them as a trio?

06:17You love the midfield three debate, don't you?

06:20LAUGHTER

06:21And I understand it, because it's an interesting thing,

06:25because you've got three outstanding players.

06:27For me, with our midfield, we've got six outstanding midfield players

06:30to pick from, and getting the balance right of those six is very difficult,

06:34because they all have different skills.

06:38I've gone back to it because I think it can work,

06:42the three of them together, I think we've obviously changed the dynamic

06:45of how it lines up, and there's strengths and weaknesses to that,

06:49we're seeing Bruno in a different position,

06:51I thought he played well today,

06:52Sandro I think has been excellent the last two games as a six,

06:55real competition for places,

06:57but three outstanding players that we need to get the best out of.

07:01OK, a few to finish off, we'll go to Dominic, Jordan and then from Rob.

07:05Within two minutes tonight you'd had two shots on goal,

07:08the intensity was there, did we see a team with a point to prove

07:12maybe to the fans, to themselves tonight?

07:15Yeah, I always think we have points to prove,

07:17regardless of what we've done previously,

07:19and maybe that's one of our issues,

07:22you win a game, nothing changes, we've got to win again,

07:25you lose a game, nothing changes, you've got to fight back,

07:28so I never get lost in that sea of results,

07:32I get lost in the sea of performance and making sure we try to be at our best,

07:37and that won't change now moving forward to Brentford,

07:39it wasn't lost on me that we had two shots early in the game

07:41and I was delighted with that start because we needed that after our last game.

07:45Anthony Gordon, back on the left,

07:47his first goal in four months like this season,

07:49did you see the best of him tonight?

07:51Yeah, I think we did in key moments,

07:53I thought he really delivered.

07:55I thought he was electric.

07:57If I'm an opposition manager looking at that performance,

08:01he's one of the first port of calls I've got to try and deal with,

08:05and I think that's Anthony at his best.

08:07Very, very pleased with his goal, could have had more.

08:11I thought he kept going right to the end as well.

08:13Just quickly, can you check in on the sports name?

08:16Just an illness problem.

08:19Jordan.

08:20Just on the referee, there was one in the first half,

08:22Anthony Gordon went for a shot,

08:24then went to ground under a challenge by Virgil van Dijk,

08:26looked like he took a shoulder to the face,

08:28were you surprised VAR didn't look at that?

08:30Well, I think VAR did look at it and concluded nothing happened,

08:34so I have to accept that.

08:36Were you surprised by that?

08:37I was, yeah, initially.

08:40Eddie, you mentioned that wonderful control you had in the first half,

08:43then it became a bit more end-to-end in the second,

08:46could you explain if you wanted it to become a bit more open,

08:49or what was happening in the second half?

08:51Absolutely didn't want it to be end-to-end,

08:53when you're winning the game you want control.

08:55We had that control in the first half,

08:57but I think you have to understand Liverpool's dynamic,

09:01there's two teams here, and I think their substitutes did well for them.

09:06I think Trent's an obvious attacking threat,

09:09with his crossing and his passing,

09:11probably more his passing than his crossing,

09:13although he's created one of the goals,

09:15he's breaking our lines with his outstanding range that he possesses,

09:18and we didn't deal with that individual threat well enough,

09:21although we had prepared for it, but stopping it is another thing.

09:26Thank you, everyone.

09:27Cheers.

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