Arne Slot’s League Cup final tactics ruthlessly exposed with Alexis Mac Allister the fall guy

Decision to deploy Liverpool’s smallest player to man-mark Dan Burn at set-pieces will go down as one of the biggest mismatches in sports history

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot consoles captain Virgil van Dijk after the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle in Sunday's League Cup final. Reuters

Muhammad Ali v Richard Dunn, Australia v American Samoa, Steffi Graf v Natasha Zvereva – some of the biggest mismatches in sports history.

Dunn was the British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion when he fought Ali for the world heavyweight title in 1976. Game and brave, Dunn was never in Ali's class and hit the canvas five times before the referee called a halt to proceedings in Round 5.

Archie Thompson scored 13 times as Australia's Socceroos registered a world-record win in men's international football – 31-0 – in a 2002 World Cup qualifier against the high-school kids and part-timers of American Samoa.

And angry spectators demanded their money back after the 1988 French Open final lasted a mere 34 minutes as German tennis legend Graf dismantled a 17-year-old Zvereva at Roland Garros.

We can now add to that list Dan Burn v Alexis Mac Allister, such was the one-sided domination of the former over the latter in Sunday's League Cup final.

To be fair, Mac Allister was the victim of circumstance. At 1.76 metres, Mac Allister was the smallest player in the Liverpool team at Wembley. The Argentine was given the unenviable task of man-marking 2.01m-tall Dan Burn when defending Newcastle corners. Akin to an ant trying to thwart a giraffe.

It was clear to all – most of all Mac Allister and Newcastle's set-piece taker Kieran Trippier – that Liverpool's tactic was flawed, not least by the fact that Mac Allister would need a trampoline to even get close to Burn in a running jump.

Newcastle United's Dan Burn jumps uncontested to score their first goal as Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister watches on. Reuters

Time and again Newcastle targeted their giant captain. Time and again Burn won the aerial duels uncontested.

Burn's towering header to give Newcastle the lead had been coming all game. The only surprise was that it took until the 45th minute for it to result in a goal.

Liverpool's strategy of zonal marking, leaving their three tallest defenders Virgil van Dijk (1.95m), Ibrahima Konate (1.94m) and Jarell Quansah (1.90m) manning the centre of their goal is by no means a bad strategy and has by and large served Liverpool boss Arne Slot well. But there is sticking to a game plan come what may and then there is having the sense to course correct if you're heading off the edge of a cliff.

Mac Allister was hapless to stop his marker and, despite how effective it proved for Eddie Howe’s side, Liverpool did not change their approach in defending set-pieces afterwards. Mac Allister was replaced on 67 minutes, but by then Newcastle were 2-0 up and Liverpool in disarray.

Slot attempted to explain his thinking after the match, telling reporters: “We play zonal, so we have five players, zonally, close to our goal. So if the ball falls there, there is always one of the five stronger players that is going to attack that ball.

“And we have three players that man-mark and Macca is one of them.

“Normally a player like Dan Burn or another one runs to the zone – and I think he’s an exception to that as I’ve never seen in my life a player from that far away heading the ball with so much force into the far corner.

“That is part of logic that they either have to go far away from our zone – which 99 out of a 100 times that will never lead to a goal – or they have to arrive in our zone and that’s an equal battle if you want to say it like this.

“So credit to him, I think he is one of the few players who can score a goal from that distance with his head.”

While Slot must shoulder much of the blame, some must also be weighted heavily on Van Dijk. Liverpool's leader on the pitch is the only player with the authority to question his manager's tactics, and more importantly change them in real time if he sees them not working.

Van Dijk's aerial prowess is legendary. Though the Dutchman stands 6cm shorter than Burn, his physicality and ability to bully and intimidate would at least have given Newcastle pause for thought when targeting their man at set-pieces.

And maybe Mac Allister isn't completely blameless either. The Argentine is a former teammate of Burn's from their time together at Brighton & Hove Albion. He would have known intimately that a duel against the Englishman was a no-contest from the off. Did he question his manager's wisdom? Who knows?

Another Slot head scratcher was the decision to withdraw Konate – Liverpool's best player – on 57 minutes for Curtis Jones, leaving the ineffectual Quansah on the pitch to do little more than make up the numbers and disrupt what little attacking momentum Liverpool could muster.

Newcastle United players lift the League Cup after defeating Liverpool in the final at the Wembley Stadium. Reuters

Newcastle's Alexander Isak celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the League Cup final against Liverpool at the Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday, March 16, 2025. AP

Liverpool's Jarell Quansah and Curtis Jones after losing the League Cup final on Sunday. AP

Alexander Isak celebrates scoring his team's second goal as Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool looks dejected. Getty Images

Newcastle United's Dan Burn celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal of the League Cup final. AFP

Caoimhin Kelleher of Liverpool fails to make a save as Dan Burn scores the first goal at the Wembley Stadium. Getty Images

Liverpool's manager Arne Slot at the Wembley Stadium. AFP

Mohamed Salah of Liverpool during the League Cup final. EPA

A week that promised so much as Liverpool beat Southampton to open up a 15-point lead at the Premier League summit ended with them out of the Uefa Champions League and beaten finalists to a team that had not won a major trophy since 1959.

Arsenal's 1-0 win over Chelsea cut the Reds' lead down to 12 points, though Arsenal have now played their game in hand. The two-week international break is followed by FA Cup action, a competition Liverpool are unburdened by having fallen to Championship side Plymouth Argyle in the third round, giving Slot and his charges plenty of time to recalibrate.

It leaves only the league to focus on. For all his failings tactically on Sunday, Slot has overseen a tremendous domestic campaign and is very much on course to join Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish as the only Liverpool managers to win the league in their debut campaign and only the fifth coach to do so in the Premier League era.