One Liverpool player deserves more sympathy than any other after abject final

One Liverpool player deserves more sympathy than any other after abject Carabao Cup final

Ian Doyle with the main Liverpool talking point after a dreadful 2-1 Carabao Cup final defeat to Newcastle United at Wembley

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The clock ticked over into the 90th minute and the familiar strains of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” began to drift across Wembley from the Liverpool supporters. This, though, wasn’t a tune of celebration.

Instead, it was a more mournful, slightly defiant reminder of their backing for a team that, for the second time in a week, had taken part in a landmark moment for all the wrong reasons.

What had been envisaged as the afternoon when Arne Slot’s remarkable debut campaign was rewarded by his first silverware at the earliest opportunity transformed into an utterly wretched occasion for the Reds.

Indeed, it’s difficult to remember a more abject Liverpool performance in a major final than the one that gifted Newcastle United the chance to end a 70-year wait to claim a domestic honour.

An injury-time strike from substitute Federico Chiesa during a belated attempt of a comeback couldn’t disguise a genuinely dire showing from Slot’s side. Had Newcastle won by three or four, there could have been no complaints.

It was difficult not to feel sympathy for Virgil van Dijk, who at times appeared willing to take the Newcastle team on by himself, heading clear at one end, taking the ball through midfield at others and then, towards the end, spending much of his time in and around the Magpies box.

A few honourable exceptions aside, his team-mates weren’t even close to following the example set by the skipper. Tired legs alone cannot explain the rank awfulness of too many before it was far too late.

So the spotlight will intensify on the future of not just Van Dijk, but those of the absent Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, who was among many to have a shocker here.

With Liverpool now without a game for more than a fortnight, the ramifications and repercussions of this loss will be debated and scrutinised to the nth degree. After such an unexpectedly excellent first three-quarters of the campaign, Slot and his players deserve better than to be vilified and picked apart.

But being eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on penalties is one thing. Losing to a highly-motivated but hardly stellar Newcastle side is quite another.

Regrets? The Reds will have more than a few. And if, as Slot has previously stated, the remaining Premier League games are nine finals, on this evidence Liverpool are by no means guaranteed title winners.

Any team can lose a showpiece occasion. The manner of this loss, though, was simply unacceptable.

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