I find it difficult to watch some of the modern teams

where the tactic is to suffocate the life I've watched should be entertaining football matches.

Too many managers put on the handbrake, and worse, I've seen it describes as a tactical master class.

It's not for me. My strength was attacking. Working with the midfielders, particularly the forward-thinking ones, the wingers and the strikers. We attacked, we had pace, we used the wings, we scored goals, we brought the crowd to its feet. Were we two gung-ho in Newcastle? Yes. But you had to see us. That wasn't me talking. It was everyone. And if that is how I remembered, that ultimately will be fine with me. Welcome to It Was What It Was. I'm Jonathan Wilson. I'm with Rob Draper. And that was Kevin Keegan in his 2018 autobiography, My Life in Football, talking about his great Newcastle team of the mid-90s.

In the first part of this episode, we talked about the build-up to the great 4-3

for Liverpool over Newcastle, which symbolically at least ends Newcastle's title,

the challenge of the season, brings a dream to an end. Today, we'll be talking about the game

and its consequences. So, Rob, we set everything

up before. Why don't you take us into the game itself on the 3rd of April? Remember, Newcastle,

go into this three points behind Manchester United, but with two games in hand, this is Newcastle's

eighth last game of the season. Yeah, so there's a real opportunity to get themselves back into the title race, having blown a 12-point lead or get themselves back on parity of Manchester United, as we, in a sense, figuratively come to the home straight of the title race. And let's just go through the teams, because I think that's significance and the formations. You've got Liverpool have David James and goal that in the hoverback three of Mark Wright, John Scales and Neil Ruddick.

And then he plays sort of weird midfield four stroke five. And I'd say it's a midfield four

of wingbacks, Jason McIterer and Rob Jones, and then midfield center two of Jamie Rednapp

and John Barr's. Stephen Manoran just seems to be roaming in that midfield. I'm not quite sure. He plays a lot down the right. And then up front, normally it's Robbie Fowler and Stan Colleymore, but Collinmore is going to be drifting to the left a lot. So Keegan says this isn't a tactical. He doesn't like tactical masterclasses. This is not going to be a tactical masterclass. It's very free and easy football. That's true on Liverpool's side as well as Newcastles. Well, and the thing you think when you look at that is Rednapp and Barnes, okay, Barnes is not the winger he had been in his youth. He's not as mobile as he was. he's also not a defensive midfielder and Jamie Rednaff similarly would play deep

and he's not a a defensive midfielded. And Jamie Reddnap, similarly, would play deep or could play deep, but he's something he sprays the ball about, a great pass of the ball. He's not a hard man who's going to be sticking the foot in. And to be honest, John Scales and Mark Wright are on the passier side of defending. They're not noted hard men.

I mean, I'm sure they're hard enough,

but they're not people who are going to sort of batter forwards,

are they?

They're noted for their ball playing.

Yeah, I did look at that midfield too and went,

that's not Patrick Vieira and Rodry.

Holding your midfield, is it? And then Newcastle are going to play a more classic, I say it's 4-4-2, but let's go through it. Pavel Cerna checking goal, we'll come to him a little bit later. Steve Watson, Steve Howie, Philip Albert and John Beresford will be the back-for. That's a fairly standard back-for for Newcastle in this season. Steve Howie is a sort of more orthodox central standards then I mean, Philly Valbert

...