Paul Merson has issued Newcastle United a warning after a sub-par second half against Nottingham Forest.
Eddie Howe’s side returned from the dressing room careless and complacent, almost throwing away a 4-1 lead after a clinical 11 first-half minutes. Newcastle have to be at the races for the rest of the season with an upcoming Carabao Cup final and a battle to achieve Champions League qualification.
Wednesday night sees the Magpies travel to Anfield for what is set to be another massive test against champions-elect Liverpool, who are now 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Merson wary after watching Sunday’s win
Newcastle will be ‘battered’ by Arne Slot’s Reds if they don’t improve defensively from a near-calamitous second half against Forest, according to Merson.
Frailties at the back mustn’t become a running theme to close our season. We have kept just one clean sheet in our last seven, against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg, conceding four on two occasions in that run – against Manchester City the week prior and Bournemouth.
In his latest prediction piece for Sportskeeda, Merson said: “Newcastle started poorly the other day before being rampant for 12 minutes and securing a big lead.”
“After all that, they almost allowed Forest to get back into that game in a crazy 4-3 result. If Newcastle allow this game to become a similar, ‘I have a shot, you have a shot’ affair, I think Liverpool will batter them!
“I really believe Liverpool don’t get enough credit. They are a phenomenal team and made City look average on Sunday. This team is so entertaining and will be deserved winners this season.
“If they win this game and Arsenal lose like I predicted, they can easily start resting players in the league to focus on the Champions League. That could make a massive difference to their aspirations in Europe.”
Merson’s prediction: Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle
Newcastle must replicate Arsenal outing
Even captain Bruno Guimaraes admitted we were lazy against Man City in that disappointing 4-0 battering spearhead by an Omar Marmoush hat-trick. The passive display in our last Prem away game can not be repeated if we are to have any hope against Liverpool on Wednesday.
Our display against Arsenal at the Emirates in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals may well be the blueprint for how we should approach the Reds in the hopes of weathering the storm of the world class Mo Salah and co.
On that evening in North London in early January we kept men behind the ball and defended in numbers, imposing ourselves at the other end with sharp counters that paid dividends that day – as they did for our fourth against Forest.
We would have been the masters of our downfall on Sunday and could have only blamed ourselves after haphazard defending and being unenthusiastic in possession almost allowed Forest to complete a chaotic comeback.
City took advantage of our defensive errors at the Etihad, and in-form Salah will feast on any opportunity provided. It could be a bloodbath, setting a bad precedent for the cup final, if we aren’t defensively at our game on Wednesday.
