Eddie Howe has had to make some difficult decisions lately but this is the most difficult of all… | OneFootball

Some have referred to the Wembley win as being a once in a generation event, and to those I would have to say, so how many people do you know who are having kids into their seventies?

It’s not a once in a generation.

It has been, until now at least, once in a lifetime.

That’s how big this is.

I’ve deliberately avoided writing an article on the match itself.

I don’t think there’s anything I can write in an article here that can come anywhere near to capturing the actual thrill of watching Liverpool 1 Newcastle 2, which I’m sure most of you did.

One thing I can do, however, is give a quick rating of our players, but unlike most, I wont be taking it too seriously.

In the past I have been rather critical of journos and others, who I suggested made their player ratings based on the result of the match, rather than the performance of the players themselves.

You know what I mean.

A couple of our players had total stinkers but we beat Spurs 6-1 and so every player was “outstanding” apparently.

As an interesting aside, I had to write the word “journos” five times before Samsung’s autocorrect let me go with the word that I wanted.

It insisted on autocorrecting “journos” to “morons”.

Interesting.

Well today I will be caving to the masses, donning my politically correct kindergarten hat and giving everyone who played full marks, so It’s 10s all round.

No losers in our team.

Okay, when I say 10s all round, I may be telling porkies there

We’ll start with Nick Pope – 10

I will never forgive Eddie Howe for dumping Dubravka out of the team for Pope, so I had to think long and hard about this.

Who am I kidding? He made a critical save, only beaten by that late breakaway one on one goal and managed to come out of his box to challenge a Liverpool player without getting sent off.

Excellent performance from Pope. Gets a 10, even if he is teacher’s pet!

Trippier – 10

Nice to see him back to his old self.

Schar – 10

Solid. Would have been nice to see him blast one in from 30 yards, but, hey ho!

Burn – 10

Eddie confessed in a post-match interview that in our previous game against Liverpool he didn’t show his full hand. Didn’t want to give them any clues as to our tactics in the final.

Talk about playing the long game. Eddie had us all convinced that Burn couldn’t score with his head! Burn was superb. Uncharacteristically aggressive with the heed, and in the words of Monty Python’s Black Knight, “None shall pass!”

Livramento – 10

On the subject of Howe keeping things under wraps, against West Ham, Eddie must have instructed Tino to “go out there and convince everyone who’s watching that you can’t cross the ball with your left foot!” Every time he ran out of turf on the left wing he would cut inside on to his right. Didn’t cross a single ball with his left all night.

Slot would have given instructions to push him out wide, so first chance he got he lobbed a high ball in with his left, onto Murphy’s head and bang, the rest, as they say, is history.

Now I’m not suggesting it was graceful. It looked so awkward, I thought he was going to spin off into the stands, but he did it.

For me, that cross was up there with Burn’s goal.

Tonali – 10

He was solid.

NAAAAAH! He was better than that. He was brilliant.

Naaaah, he was better than that. He was Tonali.

Joelinton – 10

Can I just give one 11? I won’t do it again, honest!

Nothing makes me grin, watching the lads, more than Joelinton celebrating. He puts more into celebrating than some players put into playing!

Barnes – 10

Our Super Sub had his day. And did not disappoint.

Isak- 10

A goal chalked off, a goal chalked on, and a flying, twisty bicycle attempt type thing that didn’t quite make it.

Basic Writing 101 frowns on repetition of relatively uncommon words, but “brilliant” is what it was.

Murphy. I’m not a huge fan – that’s why he only got a 10

There’s a saying – “you can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket”, (unless you are a government minister in Nigeria) but that’s what I like about Murphy. He’s willing to have go from distance. Keeps the keeper on his toes, and with this modern trend of not catching the ball but trying to parry it to safety, there are always going to scraps to pick up, corners to be had.

Here’s the one that will no doubt stir things up a bit.

Bruno – 9

While he was part of that far superior black and white midfield trio that ran Liverpool ragged , I have to dock him a point for that ridiculous attempted Maradona turn that cost us a goal. His style of play has best been described as “putting the ball at risk unnecessarily”, and that’s exactly what he did. He seems to forget that even on Merseyside they have TV now, and having seen him pull similar stunts in previous games, it wasn’t difficult for them to guess that he might try to pull something like that off.

Yes I know we won the cup, but some of us didn’t need those last few minutes of stress.

Some of us still remember a time in the not too distant past when were incapable of defending a lead.

Okay, I’ll go up to 9.5 but that’s it.

I know I said I wouldn’t do it again but…..

Eddie Howe – 11

Man of the match without a doubt. Our long ball tactics forced the Premier league leaders to play the way we wanted to play, taking Salah and Van Dijk out the game completely.

It was funny to hear Slot saying something similar as if it was in some way derogatory.

When I say Eddie, yes, of course I realise he has a team working with him, and, of course, they are all included.

Eddie Howe has had to make some difficult decisions lately, but the most difficult of all, is going to be which pose to adopt for the statue.