Chris Waugh, The Athletic: What’s next for Newcastle after Carabao Cup success | OneFootball

Newcastle United's expectations have risen after ending a 70-year major trophy drought by defeating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, explains Chris Waugh, Newcastle correspondent for The Athletic.

After beating the Reds 2-1 at Wembley Stadium prior to the international break, Eddie Howe's side are now eyeing a top-four finish in the Premier League, with Brentford visiting St James' Park on Wednesday 2 April (7.45pm kick-off).

Newcastle United are sixth in the Premier League, with a game in hand over all the teams immediately around them in the table. How would you summarise their 2025 to date?

Mixed, but it is suddenly looking like it could be the best year in the club's modern history, so it has been strange in that sense.

They came into the year on the best part of a nine-game winning run, which started immediately after they had been to Brentford and lost 4-2 in December, and looked absolutely imperious.

Then, in the last couple of games of that, they started to look a bit tired and then got turned over by Bournemouth and Fulham at St James'.

They also beat Nottingham Forest 4-3, but were three goals ahead and looked like they might throw it away, and they seemed very, very shaky.

But, within that, they had two excellent performances against Arsenal in both legs of the Carabao Cup, when they restricted them to no goals and scored four themselves, and showed that they can really raise their level against the best teams.

It is against mid-to-lower-mid-table teams that Newcastle have had some issues this season; maybe they have not found their full level in the same way that they can do against the so-called big six, that is maybe when they drop off a little bit.

So it has been a bit up and down, but the win at West Ham recently was massive for them, A, ahead of going into the up final and, B, in terms of the league position, because they had dropped from sixth to ninth over the course of that weekend, played last and got themselves back up to sixth.

It is obviously very tight in there, and now they are sixth, despite not playing in the Premier League over the weekend before the international break, so Newcastle are in a very, very good position to try and push on to the top four, probably top five, and Champions League qualification.

In the last game before the international break, Newcastle ended a 70-year long major domestic trophy drought by deservedly beating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final. With the new ownership and the ambitions of the club, how big a weight off their shoulders was that?

Absolutely huge. Dan Burn spoke after the game, that he had never wanted to say it publicly, but it did feel like a burden, that they had to be the first team to do it.

It was the constant yearning, the constant longing, and Newcastle were defined as being the club with the longest drought of a major club in English football.

It is weird because it is now the onset of a new era, where Newcastle are no longer the club that does not win anything. They have now won something, so what are they now? Hopefully that is a positive start.

The idea is that Newcastle are meant to build and try and grow and win trophies regularly, and also get into Europe - if not the Champions League - every season.

So it is meant to be the start of a journey, but I think everyone is still processing how it feels to have won something, and then how they deal with that going forward.

There is complete elation, but it is just something so novel and new. It is still difficult to comprehend that Newcastle, having been to so many finals before and lost - and not even performed, really - played so well and thoroughly deserved it.

This feels like it might be the start of a new Newcastle, so it is an absolutely huge moment.

Last time we spoke, we asked you about whether Eddie Howe was under any pressure due to the league form around that time. How much credit does he have in the bank now?

Howe can walk on water on Tyneside. The wheels are in motion for him to get the freedom of Newcastle, which means he is allowed to graze his cattle on the town moor if he happens to want to buy some cattle for that reason!

He has achieved something that even Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson - who are rightly seen as the best managers in Newcastle's modern history, did not: he has won a trophy.

Every time he has needed a positive result, he has fought back and got one, and you just have to look at the success that he has had.

Six of the 14 players involved in the cup final were there pre-takeover, Joelinton is a player who has been completely transformed from a laughing stock centre-forward into a barnstorming midfielder.

Yes, he has had money behind him, with the likes of Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimarães and Sandro Tonali, but it is not like, relative to the very, very biggest teams, he has had all that money.

He has built unity among the fanbase and the club, and he has not been able to actually really strengthen the first 11 for three windows, yet he has still managed to extract more from this group when really, they are getting towards the time they need refreshing.

He is absolutely adored; he will always have that place at the very, very pantheon of Newcastle greats, in terms of managers.

Going forward, expectations change and now they have won something there will be the expectation of winning more, but with the job he did at Bournemouth, which sometimes gets overlooked, then to keep Newcastle up in the first place, I think that still will probably rank as one of his biggest achievements, because they had not won the first 14 games and he kept them up comfortably.

To then get into the Champions League, then to lose the Carabao Cup final and then finally win something, all within the space of three and a bit years, he is undeniably absolutely cherished by Newcastle fans, and the job he's done is up there with the very, very best in English football at the moment.

Which player should Brentford fans be keeping an eye on on Wednesday?

I am going to give the boring answer and go for Alexander Isak. There was a moment in the cup final when he had his first goal disallowed because Bruno Guimarães was offside; he had not exactly been prominent in the first half, but I turned to my colleague in the press box, I saw how angry Isak was, and I said, ‘Isak will score now’.

He is a player for big moments and his record this season is brilliant - 23 goals in all competitions it is now.

He turns up on the biggest stage, when he ticks, Newcastle tick, particularly at St James' Park, where he tends to be excellent.

He is rightly seen as one of the world's leading strikers. There is always going to be speculation around him, but he is performing, he takes Newcastle to another level and he has to just be the one.

What should Thomas Frank’s side expect in terms of shape and style?

Newcastle will set up in a nominal 4-3-3, which will adapt and change throughout the game, but it should be similar to the pre-Christmas meetings.

Lewis Hall is out injured at the moment, so Tino Livramento has been covering left-back and has done really well.

Kieran Trippier probably at right-back, Nick Pope in goal, Burn and Fabian Schär centre-backs and then probably the midfield three of Joelinton, Tonali and Bruno Guimarães who, when they are performing at their best, are up there with the best midfielders in the Premier League.

Then Isak through the middle, Jacob Murphy on the right and Harvey Barnes on the left.

Brentford won the last league meeting 4-2 in December, then lost in the Carabao Cup quarter-final 11 days later. What’s your score prediction for this one?

Well, Newcastle are going to have had their Carabao Cup celebrations on the Saturday beforehand, so the idea is that that is almost like getting it out of the system and then Newcastle can kick on, beat Brentford at home, and then hopefully go into the final nine games and get into the Champions League positions.

It is hard to say, because it could go one or two ways whereby it is almost like a blowout, and Newcastle have emotionally overextended themselves, but I do not think Eddie Howe will allow that.

I'm going to go for a 3-2 home victory.