EFL Cup Final 2022-23 | Carabao Cup Preview

EFL CUP FINAL PREVIEW

The first trophy of the 2022/23 season is up for grabs with Manchester United vs Newcastle in the EFL Cup Final from Wembley, live streaming on Sky Sports.

The EFL Cup, also known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship purposes, has long been overlooked by football fans amid the obsession with the Premier League and Champions League. Perhaps it’s because it’s had more names than Watford have had managers but it’s a trophy that many top managers have placed great importance upon.

Our EFL Cup Final preview is brought to you in partnership with EPL Index, and Dave Hendrick – host of the Two Footed Podcast, offering FREE podcasts to football fans.

EFL Cup Final Preview | Who Wants It More?

⚽ Manchester United vs Newcastle United
📅 Sunday 26 February 2022
⏰ 1630 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ Sky Sports Live Streaming

In place of the usual Premier League preview, this week we must focus on the Carabao EFL Cup Final. Why? Because it’s a cup final. And this year it’s a cup final that matters a little bit more to both teams.

If, as they were raising the last of Sir Alex Ferguson’s 13 league titles in May of 2013, you’d told Manchester United fans that just a decade later the Carabao Cup final would be of huge importance they would have laughed at you. Of course they would. During the Scottish manager’s tenure at the club they had dominated English football, winning those 13 titles along with five FA Cups, four League Cups, two Champions Leagues, and a Cup Winners Cup.

They couldn’t, not even in their worst nightmares, have imagined the following decade would go so poorly. Having had one manager for 26 seasons, they are now on their fifth permanent manager and seventh manager in total, since he left.

Ferguson’s handpicked successor David Moyes lasted less than a season, Ryan Giggs finished out that season before passing the reigns to Louis Van Gaal. Van Gaal would win the FA Cup, the first post-Ferguson silverware, but ultimately last just two years before making way for Jose Mourinho.

The Portuguese manager had success, winning the League Cup and Europa League in his first season before finishing second in his second season. In year three, things fell apart as they tend to do under Mourinho at that stage of his tenures and he was fired and replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Initially appointed as caretaker, Solskjaer was the breath of fresh air United needed after things turned toxic under Mourinho. After a good start and his former teammates demanding he be given the job permanently, the Norwegian was given the reigns and despite managing a second-place finish during the pandemic-altered league season of 20/21 it was clear he was never going to win major honours. He was sacked a month short of the three-year mark, making him the longest-serving manager since Ferguson, and replaced by a caretaker manager in Ralf Rangnick.

Why United thought appointing Rangnick, who had been a Sporting Director who merely dabbled in coaching for the previous decade, was a good idea is anyone’s guess. Things, unsurprisingly, did not go well but it did lead them Erik Ten Hag.

The Dutch coach was appointed primarily because of his appealing style of play but he has had to adapt to the players at the club and abandon much of what he wanted to implement to take a more pragmatic approach based on a deep defensive line and a counter-attacking approach.

Ten Hag has United competing on three fronts and is looking to bring to an end the clubs’ trophy drought, which stretches back almost six years to Mourinho’s Europa League triumph.

United’s trophy drought is merely a blip compared to their opponents this weekend.

Newcastle United has not won a major trophy since claiming the FA Cup in 1955. We give no credence here to nonsense like the Intertoto Cup or things like the Anglo-Italian Cup or Fairs Cup. It’s been almost 68 years since Newcastle fans had silverware to celebrate and Eddie Howe is aiming to change that this weekend.

Newcastle’s takeover by Saudi Arabia has obviously garnered a lot of attention for a variety of reasons but one of the primary reasons they targeted Newcastle was that they saw a club with a big fanbase desperate for silverware. The Toon faithful have experienced as many relegations as trophies in the last hundred years, six of each, and the ownership believes the club is capable of far more.

They have bought sensibly and gone about building a team that functions as a proper unit. They have become the best defensive team in the Premier League thanks to signings like Nick Pope and Sven Botman, while also having the capability to outplay teams due to the outstanding Bruno Guimaraes.

Howe deserves huge credit for rescuing the failing Toon careers of Joelinton and Miguel Almiron, who have gone from being labeled flops to playing integral roles in their success.

This game presents a fascinating clash of styles but also gives us the possibility that those conflicting approaches mesh together to give us a great game. We know what both teams are going to try and do, United will want to sit deep and counter while Newcastle will be trying to compress the game and overrun United.

The Toon are boosted by the return from suspension of Guimaraes but will be without the suspended Nick Pope and the cup-tied Martin Dubravka – who is, somewhat ironically, cup-tied because he played for Manchester United while there on loan in the first half of the season.

So that means Loris Karius will start in goal. Karius, the former Liverpool keeper, is best known for his errors in the 2018 Champions League Final and could be set for the ultimate redemption if he can turn in a match-winning performance on Sunday.

Outside of their absent goalkeeper, Newcastle look set to line up at full strength while United do have a doubt over the fitness of Marcus Rashford.

Hopefully, this game delivers on its promise. Both teams are having good seasons and despite Newcastle’s recent dip in form both will come into the game full of confidence.

Paths to EFL Cup Final:

Newcastle United – Tranmere Rovers, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Leicester City, Southampton.

Manchester United – Aston Villa, Burnley, Charlton Athletic, Nottingham Forest.

Predicted Newcastle United 11 (4-3-3) – Karius, Trippier – Schar – Botman – Burn, Longstaff – Guimaraes – Joelinton, Almiron – Wilson – Saint-Maximin

Predicted Manchester United 11 (4-2-3-1) – DeGea – Dalot – Varane – Martinez – Shaw, Casemiro – Fred, Fernandes – Sancho – Rashford, Weghorst

No matter where you are, you can use your Liberty Shield VPN to find a way to watch the EFL Cup Final. Don’t have a Liberty Shield VPN? You’re missing out! Click right here to check out what we can offer you, and use the code EPL25 to get 25% OFF a VPN Software Package or VPN Router at check-out.

How to watch the EFL Cup Final from anywhere…

The EFL Cup Final will be streamed live on Sky Sports, as well as their respective apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Smart TV, Now TV, FireTV etc.

But their streaming services are not available to everyone, for example when you load Sky Sports in the USA, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Dubai, Canada etc. you will get an error message.

Sorry, tHE VIDEO YOU ARE TRYING TO WATCH CANNOT BE VIEWED FROM YOUR CURRENT COUNTRY OR LOCATION.