BRUCE BEATEN AS SCHMEICHEL STEALS GLORY
STEVE BrucE, upon his arrival at Newcastle this summer, said he did not understand why managers rested players in the cup competitions, yet he made seven changes last night — and lost.
In fairness, his much-changed side did well to take the tie to penalties — that is further than they normally go in the carabao cup — and were undone by two fine saves from Kasper Schmeichel during the shootout before Jamie Vardy netted the winning spot-kick.
But the team- sheet did not go down well with supporters who had listened to the head coach’s vow to try to win a cup. Bruce will argue his changes were enforced but, had this been a Premier League fixture, you feel at least five of those players left out would have started.
Switching goalkeeper Martin Dubravka for back- up Karl Darlow said a lot about where Bruce’s priorities lie, especially with Watford next up in the league on Saturday.
‘ It was difficult with the problems we had,’ said Bruce, who left out his £61million strikeforce of Joelinton and Miguel Almiron. ‘I was forced to make five, six changes, which I didn’t want to do. I think Joe and Miguel will be OK for Saturday though. It would have been worse if I’d lost them, I hope they will win us the game on Saturday.’
Previous bosses, including rafa Benitez, have been heavily criticised for refusing to prioritise a shot at silverware. Indeed, Newcastle have exited at this second-round stage of the League cup in each of the past three seasons and are yet to make it beyond the fourth round of the FA cup in 11 seasons of Mike Ashley ownership.
Leicester boss Brendan rodgers, though, had kept his promise of naming a strong XI and made just two changes from the team which won at Sheffield united on Saturday.
His argument is that Leicester should be able to compete on multiple fronts given they are not in European competition. And he is right, especially with the season in its infancy — why should players need a rest in August? The only notion of rotation for Leicester was when rodgers sent out assistant chris Davies to fulfil his post-match press commitments.
Davies said: ‘That’s the intent we showed with the line-up. It sent a strong message out that we want to do well in this competition.’
The visitors looked like a side who had played together at the weekend, enjoying nearly 70 per cent possession during a first half in which James Maddison’s deflected free-kick gave them a 34th-minute lead. Newcastle were level eight minutes after halftime. Fabian Schar loaded a ball into the area from deep and Jetro Willems, getting the wrong side of ricardo Pereira, chested into the path of Yoshinori Muto, who tucked home from close range.
The hosts had lost Matt ritchie to an ankle injury after a strong challenge from Hamza choudhury. And Bruce was furious. He said: ‘Matt is a mess. He’s got three cuts that need stitches. It’s a horror challenge — and the ref was five yards away.’
The loss of ritchie — and Willems and Emil Krafth to muscle injuries — compounded a frustrating night for Bruce.
Jonjo Shelvey and Isaac Hayden were the fall guys in the shootout, leaving Tyneside to reflect on yet another early exit in a cup competition.