Hendrick: “The most pathetic performance I’ve seen from Liverpool in a final” | OneFootball

Liverpool’s Carabao Cup Final Collapse: A Performance to Forget

The Carabao Cup Final at Wembley should have been another moment of triumph for Liverpool, but instead, it turned into an embarrassing, lifeless display that has left serious questions hanging over Arne Slot’s squad. Newcastle United, a team missing key players, didn’t just beat Liverpool – they bullied them into submission. This wasn’t just a loss; it was a performance that lacked heart, urgency, and intelligence.

Liverpool Looked Beaten From The Start

From the opening whistle, Liverpool were second-best in every aspect of the game. Trev Downey summed it up perfectly on Post-Match RAW from Anfield Index:

“It was an appalling watch and it’s left me very disillusioned… has something happened behind the scenes? Because they did not look together; there was no heart.”

Dave Hendrick didn’t hold back either, calling it:

“Arguably the most pathetic performance I’ve seen from a Liverpool team in a final in my lifetime.”

That assessment is hard to argue with. Liverpool never got going, never looked like a team that understood the occasion, and, most concerning of all, seemed totally unbothered by the fact that they were losing.

Photo: IMAGO

Where Was The Fight?

Newcastle didn’t need to be spectacular; they simply had more desire. Liverpool, on the other hand, played like a team waiting for something to happen. Hendrick was particularly scathing about the lack of aggression:

“We got one yellow card and it was for arguing. None of our lads thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to put my foot into somebody. I’m going to leave a little bit extra on somebody.'”

He compared Liverpool’s softness to Newcastle’s physical dominance:

“You’ve got that Joelinton running around, knocking people over, booting people, dragging Harvey Elliott down by the collar of his jersey, and none of our lads think, ‘I’m going to go flatten that prick.’”

In a final, against a team as combative as Newcastle, being passive isn’t an option. Yet Liverpool never seemed interested in making life difficult for Eddie Howe’s men.

Photo: IMAGO

Arne Slot’s Tactical Disaster

Liverpool’s setup made little sense. Slot’s selections and in-game decisions left Hendrick baffled:

“Our game plan bizarrely seemed to be ‘Let’s not give the ball to Mo Salah’ which to me is just one of the weirder things. We basically isolated our best player and then didn’t give him the ball.”

In fact, Salah had just 23 touches in the entire game—his fewest ever in a full 90-minute match for Liverpool. Newcastle right-back Kieran Trippier was struggling with a hamstring injury, yet Liverpool never once overloaded his side or put him under real pressure.

Guy Drinkel highlighted another issue:

“We’ve not replaced Fabinho. We still don’t have that type of player in our squad and that needs addressing in the summer.”

The absence of a real defensive midfielder allowed Newcastle to dominate physically. Ryan Gravenberch, who has been struggling for weeks, was left on far too long, with Slot refusing to make the obvious change to Endo.

Even the substitutions made little sense. Downey tore into Slot’s chaotic second-half approach:

“We ended up with Darwin as a nine, Mo and Harvey playing right-wing, Cody and Chiesa playing left-wing, two lads in the middle by themselves, Virgil as centre-forward, and Quansah and Robbo as the only defenders. And Robbo had no interest in defending at this point!”

This wasn’t a team trying to win a cup final—it was a group of players thrown onto a pitch with no plan, no shape, and no urgency.

Photo: IMAGO

Liverpool Must Respond – Fast

The league title is still within reach, but as Downey put it:

“I have the fear… we have a big thing still on the line and it felt like we were playing into the whole ‘the wheels are coming off’ thing.”

Liverpool now have to prove that this disaster at Wembley was just a bad day, not a sign of deeper problems. Everton await in the next match—anything other than a dominant response will send serious alarm bells ringing.

One thing is for certain: if Liverpool serve up another performance like this, there won’t be another trophy this season.