- 9 months ago
Newcastle United ended a 70 year wait for a domestic trophy with a stunning 2-1 victory over Liverpool at Wembley. It really, finally, actually happened.Adam Clery unpicks the entire 100+ minutes to discover the incredible changes Eddie Howe made to his side, and how they completely nullified Arne Slot's title chasers. And, while the individual efforts of Joelinton, Bruno Guimarães, Alexander Isak, and Dan Burn will go down in club history, we look at why it was also one of the best managerial performances of the season.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Right, hello then everybody. Welcome to AC, Adam Cleary, FC, football channel, you see, you get it.
00:07And your Castle United won the first trophy domestically in 70 years.
00:14I could just leave it there. I could just never ever talk about that again and die incredibly happy.
00:19However, despite the fact we only launched this channel like two and a half days ago, we have had some requests.
00:30To do a video on it. So, yeah, let's do that.
00:39And for me, this is a story about Eddie Howe, because this was a tactical masterclass on par with anything you'll see across Europe this season.
00:49And I, me, right now, will show you how he did that.
00:53Right, now, yes, very quickly before we get started. Welcome once again, AC, FC.
01:01Can't believe they let me call it that. This is only the second video properly on the channel.
01:06And it takes a while to get a cool state-of-the-art football analysis studio up and running.
01:12So there is a ways to go yet.
01:14But there is enough here with which to make videos.
01:17Thus, I am making videos.
01:19So please subscribe. Please tell all your friends.
01:22I cannot believe we caught 13,000 subs in two days.
01:27I legitimately have not felt this deeply touched since I had to go have my prostate looked at last year.
01:33So, very healthy, I was told.
01:36Anyway, though, yes, the football.
01:38Eddie Howe basically in this game presents his very own episode of the High Performance Podcast
01:43about how you control a game of football without ever really controlling the ball in the football.
01:50Only 34% possession and yet 17 attempts on goal to seven.
01:55Nearly twice the XG of Liverpool, if you care about XG.
01:59And their best chance statistically coming when they were already 2-0 up.
02:05Like, they were more, more than worthy winners in this game.
02:08And for me, that was largely down to how he set them up.
02:12Like, don't get me wrong, individual performances, we will talk about that.
02:15None of this worked without enormous individual performances.
02:19But the core of it all, you can trace it all back to the setup.
02:22So, in its simplest terms, Eddie Howe basically accepted that Newcastle weren't going to have a lot of the ball in this.
02:28So, the main thing they worked on, the core of their plan, was about what they did without the ball.
02:33What they did out of possession.
02:34Liverpool set up in the 4-2-3-1 that we expected.
02:37So, Bosley likes to get up and support their centre forward.
02:40Gravenberg, McAllister, kind of rotate around.
02:42So, sometimes there's a 1, sometimes there's a 2.
02:44But it's more or less what they would have expected.
02:46And Eddie Howe basically made the decision to go man for man with them across the entire pitch.
02:53It was a very ballsy strategy.
02:54Because it leaves you with loads of 1v1s in this game.
02:58Against an opponent who is allegedly technically superior, that could go very wrong very quickly.
03:04Like, Liverpool would normally love teams to try and do this with them.
03:07Because then, all of a sudden, you start dragging players out of position.
03:11You find little pockets of space.
03:12You create overloads.
03:14It's quite easy to play through that if you start winning all of these 1v1s.
03:18That's why most teams against them just go and defend in a block.
03:22Like, in a shape.
03:23And stay quite disciplined in it.
03:24But the first noticeably clever thing Eddie Howe does with the setup here is he takes what is theoretically, and also literally, 11v11 and turns it into 11v12.
03:36Because, obviously, the midfield matches up perfectly here.
03:39You've got one pivot for their 10 and then two aids to match up their sixes.
03:42Although, here, he actually swapped Tonali and Joe Linton and had Joe Linton sitting in the pocket.
03:47I'll tell you why he did that in a little bit.
03:50Obviously, the back four comfortably covers Liverpool's front three.
03:53And then, Isak, Murphy and Barnes block onto Robertson, Van Dijk and Canate.
03:59And you're right.
04:00Very well observed.
04:01That does leave Gerald Kwanza all on his 1v1s at right back.
04:04But the clever part about this was that the job of Tino Liveramento was to be two people.
04:11If Liverpool were in Newcastle's half and pushing them back, he was man-marking Mo Salah, as you would expect him to do.
04:17But when Liverpool had the ball in their own half and Newcastle were pressing them high, which was their main game plan,
04:22he would then jump from Salah all the way up to Kwanza.
04:27And this is a monumental ask of one player to mark not only the most dangerous attacker in Europe,
04:32but to then keep sprinting 50 and 60 yards up the other end of the pitch to stop the right back being able to play forward in him.
04:39But Liveramento, the first individual I'm going to highlight here, did that job absolutely flawlessly.
04:45And the thing is, if you'd have told Arna Slott in advance of this game that this is what Newcastle were going to do,
04:51he would have been licking his lips and rubbing his little dome at the prospect.
04:56Because look who that leaves free.
04:58Either you just go direct long into him over the top of Liveramento or you have Kwanza playing to one of your many excellent midfielders
05:06and you effectively bounce the pass around him.
05:09Like the solutions are simple and obvious and really good.
05:13And it is right here that you start to appreciate just how good those individual performances from Bruno Tonali and Joe Linton were.
05:20Because this relatively simple idea of get the ball into the midfield and then get it out to the relatively unmarked Mo Salah was never on.
05:29They hounded that Liverpool midfield.
05:32They never let them turn.
05:33They never gave them the space to do it.
05:35They suffocated the life out the centre of the pitch.
05:38And I'll prove it to you, right, because this is Dominic Sabozlai's entire pass map from the game.
05:43And just take a second.
05:45How many times from the centre of the pitch do you see him playing successfully into the space where Mo Salah would have been?
05:53Like, literally, there is one.
05:55And that is in the 93rd minute when Newcastle have 11 players behind the ball.
05:59It's not incisive.
06:01It does not open them up.
06:02And what about Gravendich?
06:03I hear you ask.
06:03Well, here is his.
06:05And he gets one really good, successful one the entire way down the touchline, skipping past Liveramento.
06:11But look what happens here.
06:13He actually makes the recovery run really successfully, stops him getting down the byline.
06:18And by the time Salah comes back into the middle, Newcastle have got men back behind the ball.
06:22It did not open them up.
06:25Ah, but what about Alexis McAllister?
06:26He's the more creative of the three, right?
06:28Well, yes, he did get exactly one of those passes off.
06:33And lo and behold, that was the thing that led to Liverpool's best chance of that entire first half.
06:38The one time they slipped through that net, they looked really dangerous, but it happened literally one time.
06:46In 102 minutes.
06:50And this is just what's so, like, gutsy and clever about Eddie Howe's strategy for this game.
06:55Because he makes the match, effectively, just loads of critical 1v1s across the entire pitch.
07:021v2s in Tino Liveramento's case.
07:04And he backed all three of his midfielders to win those 1v1s.
07:09And if you win three in the centre of the pitch, you're almost certainly going to win that game of football.
07:15Like this, and I just, I love this, is every single tackle, recovery, interception, every single time, the three of them, just the three of them, went and took the ball off Liverpool.
07:28And bear in mind, it doesn't even show pressures.
07:30So every time a Liverpool player got the ball and felt, like, sticky, hot Brazilian breast on the back of his neck and just had to go backwards in a panic, it doesn't even show you those.
07:39This is just all the times they took it off them.
07:42Like, it is impossible to play against a team that are bullying you like this in the centre of the pitch.
07:49Aha! But Adam, I have a longer than four-minute memory.
07:52I remember you saying this ground game was only one of the ways they could get into Mo Salah.
07:56What about just going over the top of Liveramento?
07:58What about just going over the top of the press?
08:00Why didn't that work?
08:02And, ha ha ha, you'll like this.
08:04Well, when Newcastle pressed high and Tino Liveramento locked onto Kwanza, this does still leave a 3v3 at the back.
08:11Both Shah and Byrne are there to deal with Jotter, so Dan Byrne would just drift out, not man-marking Salah necessarily, but close enough to him that if a ball came over the top, he could challenge for it.
08:23And if you look at Dan Byrne's defensive contribution to this game, I've also included the headers he won as well.
08:28You'll see there is obviously a core of them in the centre of the pitch where he was having to defend,
08:31but you'll see quite a lot of them come out into this part of the pitch as those long balls into what should have been an exploitable area started to materialise.
08:42Like, if you are going aerial and the match-up is between Dan Byrne and Mo Salah, that's probably not going to go well.
08:50And again, you'll remember, because you've got a memory, that I said they rotated Tonali and Joe Linton in this game.
08:55Normally, Tonali's here, Joe Linton's here, but they kind of swapped them round, as you can see from Joe Linton's heat map.
09:01Why was that? It was the same reason. Joe Linton is bigger and stronger and has a massive head compared to Tonali,
09:09so he basically screened the entire back four from them going over the top of the press.
09:14And for, again, 100-odd minutes, however long it was, Liverpool could not figure out what to do here.
09:21Newcastle are really good at high pressing. Liverpool would have worked on that during the week.
09:25They're likely to get in our face. We've got to find a way to sort of get round this.
09:29And unable to play through it, going over the top of it is something they're quite happy to do.
09:34Like, Jono would drop away from the two centre-backs and find the pocket of space if they couldn't go in directly to Salah.
09:40But now there isn't a pocket of space there. There's fucking Joe Linton.
09:45So, I wouldn't know what to do either. No slight or honest thought.
09:49And in fact, if you just watched it on TV, you wouldn't have seen this,
09:52because I've watched it back and they cut to a replay when this happens.
09:55This screening of these long balls is actually what leads to Newcastle's second goal.
10:00Like, they panic in the press. They go really long. It goes into this area.
10:04Trippier and Joe Linton bully the Liverpool players as it comes in, take the ball straight back.
10:10And from there, they move it really quickly out to the left-hand side.
10:13And that's how they get in.
10:15And I actually don't need to include the goal in this part of the analysis.
10:18I've sort of made my point.
10:19But here it is anyway, because am I going to get tired of seeing that?
10:25No.
10:25Actually, no, I can sort of make a point with this, because when it goes over the top,
10:29that becomes another physical duel between Murphy and Robertson.
10:33That was one of the 1v1s that he'd set up around the pitch.
10:36And if he wins that, that gets you the knockdown and it goes in.
10:40You see, it's all in there if you look.
10:42And just to show you what a problem this was becoming for Liverpool.
10:44This is Keller's pass map from the whole match.
10:47And obviously, there's loads of successful, neat and tidy stuff around his box.
10:51But look at how many times Newcastle forced him to kick long over that press.
10:57These are all the red ones, just the red ones.
10:59These are all the unsuccessful passes, so it was given away directly.
11:03But loads of these green ones that have gone down as successful
11:07might have gone to a Liverpool player first, yes.
11:09But because of the pressure Newcastle had on these balls,
11:12they would have lost it immediately straight after anyway.
11:15So this green is not accurate, in my opinion.
11:19It should mostly be red.
11:20And you combine all of this with all the times Newcastle directly went and got the ball back.
11:26And just...
11:27I mean, I know graphs and data don't tell you the whole story.
11:30Like, I'm so glad I was there for it.
11:33But, like, that is domination.
11:36Like, against a team that's supposedly bettering you,
11:38that is everything you could ever ask for a committed performance.
11:43Like, it's just...
11:44It's just working.
11:46But, but, but, but, but, but, it's really important to also talk about
11:50how Newcastle adapted when it wasn't all working.
11:53Because Liverpool were occasionally able,
11:55because they're a really good team to slip through this press.
11:58It was a number of times after Jones came on, especially,
12:01where he was working himself out of these positions.
12:04Like, this is more or less immediately after he comes on.
12:06And Newcastle will think this is a brilliant situation.
12:09Like, he's facing his own goal.
12:10They're locking off all of his options.
12:12You can practically taste the ear de Peroni on the back of his neck from Sandro Tonali.
12:17And yet, one little drop at the shoulder and pass forward later,
12:21and he's taken half the Newcastle team out of the equation.
12:25Like, that's what they can do to you.
12:26But not to be all philosophical, right?
12:28If you're wondering at what point good strategy and game plans
12:32manifests itself into actually winning a game of football,
12:36look at the reaction to what Jones does here.
12:40How many of these players have their heads down
12:43and are now beginning a high-intensity...
12:46It's about an hour into this game, they're tired.
12:48A high-intensity sprint, not just jogging back,
12:52not just sort of trying to get back in the position,
12:54determination to make sure the fact they've just been taken out of the game
12:58doesn't become a problem.
13:00It's all of them, bar Isak, whose job is not to do that.
13:04There were only eight seconds, and I did count them,
13:07between Jones slipping the press and that chance developing on the edge of the box.
13:11This was that really good one where Pope tipped it over the bar.
13:14So, like, that's how dangerous this stuff can be.
13:16Only eight seconds between that happening and the shot coming in,
13:20and look at how many bodies Newcastle have got back in this counter-attack.
13:26Like, Tonali and Bruno are wrong side of the ball when this happens,
13:29and they're closing down the shot eight seconds later.
13:34That's what it takes.
13:37Like, even Tino Livramento, who, as discussed,
13:40his job was to go all the way up the touchline,
13:42to press on to Jawa Kwanzaa.
13:43He's here when Jones gets through,
13:46and he's here when the shot comes in.
13:48The other part of Newcastle's game plan here
13:51is that when you fail to force them to kick along,
13:53when you do get played through,
13:55you get back into a 4-5-1 mid-block,
13:58and you do defend the space,
13:59like so many teams do against Liverpool.
14:02But the only way you can have both those things working at the same time,
14:05press high and defend deep,
14:07is if every single player,
14:09every single player,
14:11grafts their arse off to get from one to the other.
14:15And Newcastle, to a man, did.
14:18Like, here's another example.
14:19This one's quite early on.
14:20Liverpool play through the press,
14:22and Newcastle are just lungbusters left, right and centre.
14:27Before Liverpool can do anything with the space they've created,
14:30they're back behind the ball,
14:31they're set to defend much deeper.
14:32And all of that, like, as much as scoring the goals,
14:35which I'm told you actually have to do to win games of football,
14:38is why Newcastle won this game of football.
14:40Like, an effective, ruthless implementation of an aggressive game plan,
14:45but everybody willing to run themselves into the ground
14:48on the rare occasions that it fails.
14:51Like, it sounds simple.
14:53It's f***ing hard to do, but it is simple.
14:55Like, this whole thing, from start to finish,
14:58is a story about having the guts and the self-belief
15:01to just go 1v1 with some of the greatest players in the world
15:05and winning pretty much every single time.
15:09Which, as a lovely segue, I'm quite proud of this one,
15:12if the 1v1 in question is Alexis McAllister versus Dan Byrne,
15:17that's about as good idea as having me mark a street lamp.
15:22Knowing that Liverpool largely defends only,
15:24and thus put all their best headers in this really vital area of the box,
15:29Newcastle just didn't do that.
15:32They put all their best headers outside of that area
15:34and crossed directly to them.
15:36And you know what, right?
15:37I hesitate to say this,
15:39because it does kind of feel like you're taking the shine off it for them.
15:41But the plan from these set pieces was not for Dan Byrne to score.
15:46It was for Dan Byrne to be out of these areas
15:48and win the first contact
15:49and then score with the second contact.
15:52You can see that working earlier on in the game.
15:54Byrne wins the header, shock and surprise,
15:57and it goes to Bruno,
15:58who should score from much closer in.
16:00That's what they were trying to do,
16:02not somehow score a header from 13 or 14 yards out.
16:06But hey, when it's your day, it's your day.
16:10Anyway, yeah, that was it.
16:11Liverpool may have got a goal later on,
16:13but I can't really remember anything about that.
16:152-1, Youcastle United.
16:15They win the first trophy in 70 years,
16:17and I don't mind telling you,
16:19I cried my little eyes out.
16:24I was in like the seventh row,
16:25practically on the halfway line,
16:26and I sobbed into my seller-branded scarf.
16:30And I'll tell you why, right?
16:32The tactic stuffed over.
16:33This is just a bit of a soapbox.
16:34Pull up a seat.
16:36I wanted to win this trophy,
16:39not because it had been 70 years
16:40and not even necessarily for me.
16:42I really wanted them to win it
16:45for this version of Newcastle United.
16:48Like, the club's going to change
16:50over the next couple of years.
16:51The whole reason they bought it,
16:52it's what the plan is,
16:53it's why they're talking about building a new stadium.
16:55There's going to be different players,
16:56the fan base is going to expand.
16:57The club could be very different in a couple of years,
17:00but there's so many players here.
17:01If you look through that squad,
17:03they either survived Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce,
17:05like Joe Linton, Cher, Jacob Murphy.
17:08Who they couldn't even get in that team.
17:10Callum Wilson, Dubravka,
17:11they were pretty much single-handedly
17:13keeping us up that year.
17:15Then loads of players who came in
17:16when we were at risk of relegation,
17:18who took a risk with our own careers.
17:20Dan Byrne, Bruno Trippier.
17:22And then all the players who came the following summer
17:24when there was no talk of Champions League football.
17:26And these were high reputation,
17:28exciting young stars
17:29who were taking a bit of a risk in coming here
17:32because nobody knew how it was going to go.
17:34This team could look completely different
17:36in a couple of years.
17:37And I'm so pleased that it's a squad
17:40with Byrne, Murphy and Longstaff,
17:42with Bruno, Tonali and Joe Linton,
17:45with Lascelles, with Trippier.
17:47I'm so pleased that these lads get to say,
17:50we didn't just keep them up.
17:51We didn't just get them back in the Champions League,
17:53but we were the ones that whatever happens,
17:56history must record.
17:58We won that first trophy
18:00in a billion, billion years.
18:02I wanted it for them.
18:05Not quite as much as I wanted it for me.
18:07I am selfish.
18:09But, yeah, it's nice.
18:11It is nice for them.
18:12It's really nice for them.
18:13So, yeah, there you go.
18:16If you told me a year ago
18:17that the second ever video I do
18:19for The Independent
18:20in a channel that literally has my own name in the title
18:23would be about Newcastle winning a trophy,
18:25I would have said,
18:27I think you've probably had enough to drink.
18:30Now, mother, let's get you in that taxi.
18:32But, yeah, somehow all of those things are true.
18:34So, hi again.
18:34Yes, welcome to ACFC.
18:36It's only the second video.
18:37Things don't quite work like they're supposed to yet,
18:39but we're starting.
18:40We're doing the video.
18:41So, if you do have it in your heart,
18:43if you've enjoyed this
18:44or any stuff I've done previously
18:45to tell people we're here,
18:47to tell people we're back,
18:48to share the videos around,
18:49to, like, I don't know,
18:50put it in a WhatsApp group,
18:51you've probably got friends.
18:53That is as valuable to us
18:54as anything YouTube can do
18:56with the platform.
18:58So, I would be enormously grateful for that.
19:01And I reckon I've probably only got about
19:03three or four more videos of begging there.
19:06So, enjoy it.
19:08Still no slick, sexy motion graphic
19:09with my social media handles on,
19:11but it is coming.
19:12I promise that's probably just
19:13Comic Sans or something.
19:14You can get me on all the social medias
19:15at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
19:17If you haven't done it yet,
19:17please do subscribe to us
19:18here at ACFC.
19:20I'm having a great, great time.
19:24But if I'm honest,
19:25not as great a time
19:27as I had on the 16th of March
19:29at Wembley Stadium
19:29because that was
19:31the best day
19:32of my entire life.
19:35And that's why it happened.
19:37Thanks.
19:38Goodbye.
19:39How are the lads?
19:40I love you enormously.
19:42Well, enormously strong.
19:44Enough.
19:45I love you the appropriate amount.
Comments