Eddie Howe ‘surprised’ by Liverpool star he thinks got lucky in Newcastle clash

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Most managers in the Premier League – Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe among them – would kill for the sort of depth Arne Slot can call upon at Liverpool.

Because, with the league leaders falling 2-1 down in Wednesday night’s six-goal thriller on Tyneside, Slot had the luxury of being able to call upon Luis Diaz, Dominik Szoboszlai and also arguably the greatest, most creative full-back on the planet.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, replacing Joe Gomez just past the hour mark, needed only seconds to set up Mo Salah’s equaliser.

The ‘outstanding’ Alexander-Arnold would then produce a second Liverpool assist in his dazzling cameo 15 minutes later, setting up Salah again as Liverpool took the lead for the first time at St James’ Park.

Though, while finding time to praise Alexander-Arnold’s impact, Eddie Howe did feel that one of his Liverpool team-mates got a bit lucky. Virgil van Dijk somehow managed to avoid punishment after a pretty blatant body check on Anthony Gordon inside the penalty area.

On another day, Newcastle may have had a spot-kick and Liverpool may have been reduced to ten men, shortly before half-time and with The Magpies already one to the good.

Eddie Howe thinks Virgil van Dijk got lucky in Liverpool vs Newcastle clash

“[VAR] concluded nothing happened, so we have to accept it. I was surprised by it initially though,” Howe says, before indicating that Jarrel Quansah was also fortunate to avoid giving away a penalty in a challenge with Alexander Isak. I was surprised by it initially though.

“I thought it was a penalty on Alex, but I haven’t seen a replay. That was just an initial thought.”

In truth, the replay will show that Quansah does appear to get a touch on the ball before Isak hit the deck. Still, Gary Lineker felt Quansah was fortunate and the England legend was not alone, it seems.

Newcastle would claim a point in the end, of course, Fabian Schar’s stoppage time equaliser ensuring that Liverpool failed to win for only the third time in the Slot era.

And Howe was left hailing the quality of Liverpool’s squad on a night in which Slot shuffled his pack.

“Their substitutes did very well for them,” Howe said in his post-match press conference. “Trent is an obvious attacking threat with his crossing and passing.

“It’s probably more his passing than his crossing, although he created one of the goals where he’s breaking our lines with the outstanding range that he possesses. We didn’t deal with that individual threat well enough.

“We prepared for it, but stopping it is another thing.”

Arne Slot hails Mo Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz

Newcastle are hardly the first team to try and fail to keep Alexander-Arnold at arms’ length.

In just over 300 Liverpool appearances, the academy graduate is now just 15 away from registering a century of assists.

And, on the occasions when Alexander-Arnold is unavailable, Conor Bradley has stepped up pretty impressively. Bradley was superb as Liverpool beat Real Madrid in the Champions League at the end of November, for instance.

Slot, meanwhile, was keen to highlight the difference Szoboszlai and Diaz made following their own introductions as the Dutchman made a triple change just past the hour.

“I think Mo had a massive impact on the game as well. Dom came in really well, Lucho [Diaz] also,” Slot says. “But I think, in general in the second-half we played much, much better than the first-half.

“In the first-half, we had a lot of problems with their intensity, aggressive playing style without the ball. Aggressive in a good way. We tried to cope with it, but every time we touched them we got a yellow and that doesn’t really help for us to be intense then as well.

“But we give credit to them, they were more intense than us. They forced us into too many mistakes. It wasn’t that difficult for us to be better in the second-half with the ball and that’s what we were.

“Maybe it was difficult for them to keep the intensity of the first 45 minutes going and as a result of that, or of all of these things, we dominated the second-half.”