Former Newcastle United manager says who Eddie Howe will blame for late Liverpool defeat

Former Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew believes Eddie Howe will blame himself for his side’s 2-1 defeat to 10-man Liverpool.

St James’ Park was left stunned as the Magpies surrendered a 1-0 lead inside the remaining 10 minutes. United had a goal and man advantage following Virgil van Dijk’s red card, which came shortly after Anthony Gordon’s opener, however, they succumbed to two late goals by substitute Darwin Nunez.

And Pardew reckons Howe will be kicking himself at his substitutions. The Magpies’ head coach brought off Gordon, Alexander Isak and Sandro Tonali in place of Harvey Barnes, Callum Wilson and Sean Longstaff in the 72nd minute.

Jurgen Klopp then introduced Nunez, who scored in the 81st and 93rd-minute to inflict a second straight defeat on Howe’s men.

Pardew told talkSPORT: “I’m not going to say anything more about Eddie than I need to because it’s been said. He’s done a great job - the signings they’ve made have been absolutely terrific.

“I actually thought Tonali was the one that shouldn’t have come off. For me, he was my man of the match, although [Anthony] Gordon was excellent.

“He’ll be kicking himself, Eddie. He’ll go into his little room with his staff and he’ll be like ‘I can’t believe that’s happened’. He won’t believe it at first and then he’ll probably look back tomorrow on the game and he will blame himself. And I’m sure he’ll blame himself to the players as well and hold his hands up.

“You have to do that because players make errors all the time. The first goal is a deflected error-ish for Liverpool and Newcastle. Managers make errors too. He’s made those substitutions in his mind for the right reasons but obviously, it hasn’t come off.”

When asked about his changes after the game, Howe explained: “I thought the momentum was shifting at that moment and so I made the changes. In hindsight would I have made them? Maybe not. But I had to make the decision I thought best at the time.”

Having lost back-to-back against Manchester City and Liverpool, Newcastle face a difficult trip to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday evening (kick-off 5:30pm).