'Probably' - Eddie Howe responds to Nick Pope question as Newcastle United star criticised v Liverpool

Eddie Howe felt Newcastle United competed well against Liverpool but was disappointed with the two goals his side conceded.

The Reds opened the scoring just 12 minutes in when Dominik Szoboszlai was found in space on the edge of the box, with his shot rolling through the legs of Sandro Tonali and Dan Burn before beating Nick Pope.

Alexis Mac Allister then doubled the hosts’ lead around the hour mark when he was found by Mohammed Salah in the box.

Newcastle, without top scorer Alexander Isak due to a slight groin issue, ended the game without registering a shot on target.

“I thought we played pretty well,” Howe said in his post-match press conference. “I think what let us down was the two goals we conceded. We should never concede from those situations, we've got enough bodies back, we just don't mark the men.

“We're just two yards off very good players in the box and they're punishers. So, really disappointed with that aspect of our play.

“But I thought in between the boxes we were competitive tonight. I thought it wasn't our best performance from an attacking sense, but I thought we had moments and chances, but our final ball let us down, really, I thought.”

Pope was criticised for his part in the first goal, though there was an argument to say the goalkeeper was unsighted.

When asked if that was the case, Howe said: “Difficult for me to comment, I don't know. I've not spoken to Nick about it and I've not seen it again from any angle.

“I think it went through two people's legs, so I think that's the difficulty for Nick, he's probably unsighted but I've got no idea. I can't give you a definite on that.”

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