What happens if a change is exactly what is needed though? When Joelinton was ruled out of Newcastle United’s semi-final decider against Arsenal with a knee injury sustained in last weekend’s defeat to Fulham, Eddie Howe had a decision to make.
He could easily have gone with a like-for-like replacement. Joe Willock could have come in for Joelinton and very little would have changed. Sean Longstaff or Lewis Miley could have played as a slightly narrower midfielder, prioritising midfield solidity over attacking threat, but effectively maintaining the status quo.
There was another option though. Howe tends to be fairly tactical rigid, sticking with a version of his preferred 4-3-3 formation no matter what the opposition. Arsenal present some very specific attacking threats, however, so what if, along with his fellow senior coaches, the Newcastle boss was to come up with a bespoke tactical change, designed specifically for the second leg of the semi-final?
It would be a risk, undoubtedly. But the rewards would potentially be massive. Bring in an extra centre-half to increase the defensive height in the six-yard box, negating Arsenal’s established threat from set-pieces. Play with five at the back to pack out the penalty area, thwarting the Gunners’ attempts to thread intricate through balls through to their forwards. And instruct one of the three central defenders to be ready to step out, aggressively pressing Declan Rice to deny the England international the time and space that would otherwise allow him to become the fulcrum of the Arsenal team. Might it work? The answer was evident on Wednesday night.
“There’s a risk to everything, team selection and systems, and people will debate it endlessly,” said Howe, in the wake of his side’s victory. “I understand it. But I think when you’re us and you’re on the inside and you’re faced with all the knowledge that we have, sometimes things are pretty clear.
“This was clear in my head as soon as the (Fulham) game finished, and we knew that we’d be missing Joe for a period of time, that we had to change something. We came up with a plan on Monday and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Today, I thought the lads stuck to the plan and delivered it really well.”
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Schar was the key to the plan, identified as the auxiliary centre-half, and tasked with the role of stepping out to disrupt Arsenal’s patient passing.
The Swiss international carried out his duties superbly, unsettling Rice to the point where the Arsenal midfielder’s normally-flawless composure had disappeared long before he was robbed of possession in the build-up to Newcastle’s second goal. The player taking the ball from him? Schar, galloping forward to close down on the edge of Arsenal’s 18-yard box.
“That was Fabian’s job off the ball, and I have to say, I thought he did it brilliantly,” said Howe. “It’s not easy for a centre-back to travel those distances – I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to do it and I played in his position. But Fabi’s got real talents, and one of those is that he’s very aggressive and when you give him a job to do, he will try to do it to the letter.
“He’s not your traditional centre-half by any means. He could have been a number six, probably could have been a number ten, but we’re grateful to have him in the position that he plays. He’s very creative, and he’s done some special things since I’ve been here. I was really pleased to see him assist the goal, a reward for his high-energy performance.”
Identifying the potential benefits of such a major tactical change is one thing, and Howe deserves immense credit for the way in which he mastered Mikel Arteta over the course of the two semi-final matches. You then have to have the belief and self-confidence to enact such a significant alteration, and again Howe and his coaching staff should be praised for the clarity of the instructions they must have passed on.
Ultimately, though, such a big tactical shift will only work if the players buy into it, and Howe has clearly built up a reservoir of trust that means that when he opts for something out of the box – quite literally when it came to Schar’s positioning for most of the game – his players are willing to go along with whatever he comes up with.
“The gaffer was massive in tonight’s win,” said Bruno Guimaraes, speaking shortly after the final whistle. “The team shape was unbelievable. Everything went to plan. We knew if we’d score first, it would be a big step for us. To score the second, it was amazing.”
And so, Newcastle head off to Wembley. As was the case two years ago, Howe and his players will be carried into the Carabao Cup final on a tidalwave of emotion. Seventy years of yearning, all that hurt. There will be an element of feeding off that, but as was the case on Wednesday, this time it will about being clinical. Driven and impassioned, yes. Emotionally over-wrought? Not this time around.
“To be honest, I’ve never really felt this season there’s been a moment where the team have been overly-emotional,” said Howe. “Now, I think that has positives and negatives. The positive is, of course, you’re expected to do your job and be clinical with it, that’s how I want us to be.
“Of course, there have been times this season where we haven’t looked ourselves, we’ve almost looked under-emotional, so there’s a balance and a sweet spot we need to get right for every game. “I thought we got that perfect tonight. I thought it was a really good emotional response to a really emotional game.”
