Former Toon boss Alan Pardew believes Eddie Howe’s decision to take off Sandro Tonali was his big mistake and one he’ll be ‘kicking himself’ over after our 2-1 loss to Liverpool.
The Italian midfielder was having a great game before he was replaced by Sean Longstaff in the 72nd minute, with Liverpool equalising less than 10 minutes later.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Pardew also acknowledged that Anthony Gordon had played very well down the left, but felt as though Tonali was the key man for us and best player on the pitch.
We’ll never truly know how the game would’ve panned out if that sub wasn’t made, but it’s certainly raised a lot of questions about Howe making pre-planned changes.
As Pardew mentions, managers do make mistakes just like we see players make every week, but hopefully this is one that we learn from and improve upon. Watch Pardew’s post-match comments below:
