Jamie Carragher has told managers to ban goalkeepers playing the ball into midfielders running towards their very own goal when under pressure, after watching Arsenal concede a goal due to that ploy at Newcastle.
The Magpies beat the Gunners 2-0 at St James’ Park on Wednesday night, completing a comprehensive 4-0 aggregate victory within the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
Eddie Howe’s side won’t go on to face either Liverpool or Tottenham within the Wembley final, while Arsenal’s seek for silverware goes on.
Newcastle were very impressive as they pressed Arsenal hard, with man-to-man tactics and Howe set centre-back Fabian Schar the duty of hounding Declan Rice.
It was a good distance for the defender to go to press Arsenal’s deep midfielder, however it paid off within the second half.
Gunners goalkeeper David Raya tried to make a brief pass to Rice, who was running back towards his own goal under pressure from Schar.
The 33-year-old showed great energy to slip in on the England man and prod the ball to Anthony Gordon who fired past Raya.
The Liverpool legend felt it was a goal conceded of Arsenal’s own making and urged managers to stop telling their goalkeepers to play such passes.
Carragher posted on X: ‘Keepers have to be banned from playing those passes into midfield players.’
Asked in regards to the Magpies’ second goal, Arteta admitted his team weren’t sharp enough, but not that Raya mustn’t have played the pass.
‘In 50-50 balls, in clearances we needed to take touches, we give them one other likelihood as well,’ the Gunners boss told Sky Sports.
‘That should improve and today in that aspect we weren’t at our greatest.’
He added: ‘They’ve been more efficient than us within the boxes and that’s the difference within the tie. It’s essential to be on the day very efficient that’s what takes you shut to winning trophies and today we weren’t, Today is painful and tomorrow a unique day.’
Howe said work on the man-to-man plan only begun on Monday, but praised Schar particularly for pulling it off so impressively.
‘The work began on Monday, which is quick,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘The Champions League last yr helped us to work on those two-day turnarounds. We do tweak things depending on the opposition. We felt we would have liked more height within the team, we wanted solidity on the back and we had to vary so as to win the sport.
‘The players followed the instruction to the letter, they deserve the credit. Fabian [Schar] had big distances to cover in his job, tracking Declan Rice whether he dropped low or went wide or went central. At times he went right across the pitch. He’s an excellent athlete and may be very able to doing it.’
Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes hailed the work of Howe, saying: ‘For me, the manager is amazing. He deserves the credit.’
Gordon added: ‘We felt good going into the sport after the end in the primary leg but we knew the primary goal was all the time going to be massive. In the event that they got the primary it might have gotten really tense I imagine, so I’m glad we got that.
‘Everyone knows we don’t change much. We’re all the time going to press and take a look at to place teams under pressure. The gaffer altered it somewhat bit, I played inside a bit more, they usually struggled with it on the counter attack because they’ll couldn’t really pick me and Murph up and Alex [Isak] does what Alex does. I believe the gaffer deserves all of the credit.’
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