Alexis Mac Allister, the shortest player in the Liverpool side, was left to mark goalscorer Dan Burn in the 2-1 loss to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final.
It was a mismatch which led to Newcastle‘s first goal, the towering Burn given a free header from the edge of the box which sailed in for 1-0.
Mac Allister was hapless to stop his marker and, despite how effective it proved for Eddie Howe’s side, Liverpool did not change their approach in defending set-pieces afterwards.
That was by design, with Arne Slot sticking to a zonal-marking system, as he explained in his post-match press conference.
“Again, credit to Newcastle, but I can explain. We play zonal, so we have five players, zonally, close to our goal,” he told reporters.
“So if the ball falls there, there is always one of the five stronger players that is going to attack that ball.
“And we have three players that man-mark and Macca is one of them.
“Normally a player like Dan Burn or another one runs to the zone – and I think he’s an exception to that as I’ve never seen in my life a player from that far away heading the ball with so much force into the far corner.
“That is part of logic that they either have to go far away from our zone – which 99 out of a 100 times that will never lead to a goal – or they have to arrive in our zone and that’s an equal battle if you want to say it like this.
“So credit to him, I think he is one of the few players who can score a goal from that distance with his head.”
It is perhaps, as Slot says, credit to the unique talents of Burn that the move resulted in a goal, though Liverpool’s defensive was far from impressive.
Interestingly, in his post-match interview with Sky Sports, Newcastle manager Howe – who admitted tweaking his tactics in the recent Premier League loss at Anfield in order to fool Slot – expressed his surprise at Burn’s goal.
“We worked consistently for two weeks on set-plays just for this game and if you had seen us in practice you would have said we had no chance,” he said.
“We couldn’t believe Dan Burn scored – he didn’t train like that! He was a colossus for us.”
