Alan Pardew thinks Eddie Howe will be regretting one major mistake made during Sunday afternoon’s featured Premier League game at St. James’ Park against Liverpool.
Despite taking an early lead through Anthony Gordon and then seeing Virgil Van Dijk shown a straight red card for a poor tackle on Alexander Isak, Newcastle United failed to make the most of their advantage and ended up losing the game 2-1.
Darwin Nunez’s inspired second-half substation fired the Reds to an amazing win with the South American netting two late goals.
However, while Jurgen Klopp will take all the praise for his tactical decision to introduce Nunez, Pardew thinks Howe will regret one key decision of his own.
Speaking on TalkSPORT about Howe’s in-game decision to bring Sandro Tonali off the pitch, Pardew said: “I actually thought Tonali was the one who shouldn’t have come off. For me. He was my man of the match although Gordon was excellent.
“He will be kicking himself Eddie. He’ll got into the little room after where you have a little drink with the other manager but usually you go with your staff. But he’ll look at that and think ‘I can’t believe it’ and he’ll blame himself and I’m sure he’ll blame himself to the players as well and hold his hands up.
“He’s played those subs in his mind for the right reasons and obviously this time, it’s not come off.”