Alan Pardew says Eddie Howe will be ‘kicking himself’ for one decision in Newcastle v Liverpool

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Former Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has claimed Eddie Howe will be blaming himself for the Mags losing the game against Liverpool yesterday.

Liverpool roared from a goal and a man behind to snatch all three points at St James’ Park thanks to a brilliant brace from Darwin Nunez. The goals came very much against the run of play, albeit Liverpool did grow into things in the second half.

However, with the game at 1-0 to Newcastle and Liverpool not realy threatening, Eddie Howe made three changes, taking Gordon, Tonali and Isak off.

And speaking on TalkSPORT, Alan Pardew has claimed Howe made the wrong decision in taking Tonali off and ultimately, he’ll be regretting it.

“I actually thought Tonali was the one who shouldn’t have come off. For me. He was my man of the match although Gordon was excellent,” Pardew said.

“He will be kicking himself Eddie. He’ll got into the little room after where you have a little drink with the other manager but usually you go with your staff. But he’ll look at that and think ‘I can’t believe it’ and he’ll blame himself and I’m sure he’ll blame himself to the players as well and hold his hands up.

“He’s played those subs in his mind for the right reasons and obviously this time, it’s not come off.”

Tonali has quickly endeared himself to the Newcastle faithful and looked every bit a quality midfielder against the Reds. Quite why Howe decided to take him, remains to be explained.

Liverpool catch Howe and Newcastle off guard

As Pardew says, at the time, Howe probably thought he was doing the right thing by taking off three players and bringing fresh legs onto the field.

But it didn’t half backfired when Jurgen Klopp unleashed Nunez. The Uruguayan changed the game and suddenly, Newcastle had lost control of the game and lacked the same threat from midfield and up top.

Pardew is right here, Howe will be thinking he’s made an error. But it happens, and really, you have to give Liverpool credit as well for turning things around like they did.