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Liverpool’s manager, Arne Slot, unveiled the suggestions of the defeat on his side 2-1 against Newcastle United in the EFL Cup final was the product of fatigue after his loss of penalty in Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.
The Reds were favorites to claim their first trophy under Slot, which has supervised a prominent first season since the takeover of Jurgen Klopp, with Liverpool 12 points from Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.
But they got rid of an excellent performance by Newcastle, who advanced 2-0 through the goals of Dan Burn and Alexander Isak before Federico Chiesa retired in a stop time.
An exhibition by Liverpool arrived five days after dropping a first -leg lead over PSG in his last tie at 16, a second pulsant leg that ended up penalizing, in which Gianluigi Donnarumma shone to send the leaders of League 1.
Liverpool seemed to Wembley’s energetic, but Slot would not cite fatigue as a factor, but noted a direct newcastle approach that manager Eddie Howe admitted that he had remained close to his chest when the two parties met Anfield last month as the main reason for his team.
“Mentally it is always difficult to judge,” Slot told journalists when they asked if his side was tired.
“We were tired on Tuesday or physically? No, but this game had nothing to do with the race, this game only had to do with duels.
“And there was no intensity in terms of running in this game, we cannot even judge if we were physically tired, 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 in our press.
“If they got a goal game or free lack, each time they brought it to our last line, which caused many pieces.
“So the game was slow and not intense, so it is difficult to judge, for me, if we were physically ready. Mentally, this is difficult.
“If we look at the result and performance you could hear -the PSG game) did something, but I prefer to look at how the game went, and this game went exactly how they wanted it to be.
“A fight with many duels and many duels for the air, and if we play a football game in the air ten times they probably win nine times, as they are stronger in the air than we do.”
Liverpool will have time to overcome the disappointment this week, with an international pause that allowed them the opportunity to regroup -ahead of the Merseyside derby with Everton on April 2.
As to whether this pause had come in a good time for his team, Slot said: “We are one of the largest clubs in the world, Liverpool. But it is not for the first time in its history, or in the last two seasons, they have lost two games in a row.
“This is part of playing football, especially if one is when he faces the best team in Europe at this time, and the other faces Newcastle, who is a very strong team in England.
“I would have loved playing next week. But now the situation is that they go to their national teams, where they have two more games again. Then they are probably weeks and a half before tackling Everton, who is again a team we already faced. We know how difficult it was. See.”
