While Arne Slot admits it is difficult to judge if his side were mentally fatigued in Sunday’s defeat, he refutes his side were physically put to the test as there “was no intensity with running.”
Liverpool were second best and deserved to hand the Carabao Cup over to Newcastle, who had more shots (17 vs. 7), more touches in the opposition box (26 vs. 17) and won more duels (51 vs. 38).
The Reds never truly showed up and after a taxing midweek defeat that led to an early Champions League exit, understandably, Slot was questioned about his side’s fatigue.
Having made just two changes – one enforced – Slot refuted the notion that physical fatigue played its role at Wembley as Newcastle‘s tactics negated the need to run.
Asked about fatigue by reporters after the 2-1 defeat, Slot said: “Mentally is always difficult to judge.
“Were we on Tuesday mentally or physically tired? No, but this game had nothing to do with running, this game had only to do with playing duels.
“And there was no intensity in terms of running in this game at all, we cannot even judge it if we were tired physically, yes or no, because we could not press them.
“You can judge a team if they are tired if they press, but there was nothing to press because they played over our press.
“If they got a goal-kick or free-kick, every time they brought it to our last line which led to a lot of set pieces.”
Slot: ‘Final was slow and not intense’
Slot continued: “So the game was slow and not intense, so it’s difficult to judge, for me, if we were physically ready. Mentally, that is a difficult one.
“If you look at the result and the performance you might feel it did something to us, but I prefer to look at how the game went, and this game went exactly how they wanted it to be.
“A fight with a lot of duels, and a lot of duels through the air, and if we played 10 times a game of football through the air against them they win probably nine times as they are stronger in the air than us.”
If one removes the few outliers of mass changes for cup ties this season, Slot is averaging just 2.2 changes per game – a number that he will surely be discovering is not sustainable in English football.
Federico Chiesa was the latest example that his squad should be trusted more than it currently is as signs of fatigue have been obvious for a number of weeks – even if he can’t see it!
