Newcastle feels different ahead of cup final: Howe
Eddie Howe believes the mood in the Newcastle United camp ahead of Monday's (AEDT) Carabao Cup final against Liverpool "feels different" than it did before its previous final, which it lost in 2023.
Newcastle is bidding to win its first major domestic trophy since 1955, when it beat Manchester City 3-1 in the FA Cup final.
Since then, the Magpies have lost five domestic cup finals – three in the League Cup and two in the FA Cup – with only Chelsea enduring a longer losing run in finals.
Howe previously guided Newcastle to the final of this competition in 2023, but it was beaten 2-0 by Manchester United with Casemiro and Marcus Rashford scoring.
But he believes the Magpies are approaching this match with more confidence, having eliminated four Premier League clubs in Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Brentford and Arsenal.
"I am feeling very good. I think it does feel different," Howe said as he reflected on the 2023 final.
"I think the whole thing this season has felt different, in the sense that I think we have gone about our business in a really calm, controlled way.
"We have had a really tough run of fixtures in the cup. I think to attack those games in the way that we did and in the midst of a busy campaign with the Premier League, FA Cup... we have gone from round to round. Now we have ended up in the final.
"There has been a lot less emotion, a lot less noise outside here. Hopefully, that helps us with the performance in the game."
Should Newcastle triumph at Wembley, Howe will become the first English manager to win a major trophy with a Premier League team since 2008, when Harry Redknapp oversaw Portsmouth's FA Cup victory.
The last Englishman to lift the Carabao Cup as a manager was Steve McClaren, who did so with Middlesbrough in 2004.
Howe has won 12 of his 16 Carabao Cup matches with Newcastle, the best win ratio of any manager to take charge of more than one game in the competition for the Magpies at 75 per cent.
The only Newcastle manager with more wins in the League Cup is Kevin Keegan, who won 13 of his 21 games in the competition.
Midfielder Bruno Guimaraes echoed Howe's thoughts as he said: "I feel we have more confidence. Because we have made a final before, we know have more experience.
"We have changed some players, but the base is still there. We are in our best moment.
"Hopefully we can go there and play our best football because on our best day, I think we are really a great team.
"It is a good opportunity. We feel the same as them, we just want to make the fans happy. We are going to do our best to get this trophy back to the city."
