Fallible Pope means Newcastle must turn to Loris Karius 

RED CARD: Newcastle United goalkeeper Nick Pope (right) leaves the pitch after being being shown a red card during the Premier League match at St. James' Park. Pic: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

Premier League: Newcastle 0 Liverpool 2 

Less than a week until Newcastle's first major final in almost a quarter of a century and there's an elephant in the room. A Loris Karius-shaped elephant.

Eddie Howe insisted he won't hesitate to give the German a chance and Jurgen Klopp spoke in glowing, albeit brief, terms of the man who is in line to make his Magpies debut in the most high profile of games for which up until Saturday he was not even remotely in the picture for.

It's two years since his last senior match and getting on for half a decade since his most recent appearance for an English club, when his ineptitude gifted Real Madrid two goals en route to beating Liverpool in the Champions League final, denying Klopp his first major trophy until they beat Spurs in the culmination of the same competition 12 months later.

There's a decent case to suggest Karius suffered concussion on that fateful night in Kiev after a collision with Sergio Ramos. Whatever the mitigation, he never played for Liverpool again and the majority of Newcastle fans remain to be convinced that he is the right man to replace Nick Pope.

The England goalkeeper chose the very worst time to earn a first red card in a professional career spanning the best part of 300 games with a comedy handball which has turned out to be anything but a laughing matter for Howe.

Martin Dubravka performed admirably to keep Liverpool at bay for more than an hour after replacing for his unfortunate colleague, but two Carabao Cup appearances during a loan spell at Manchester United earlier this season mean the ineligible 34-year-old will suffer a similarly frustrating afternoon next Sunday watching a match between the two clubs he has represented this season.

"It will be strange to be sat watching the game for obvious reasons," Dubravka admitted as the ramifications became clear of Pope's comedic charge out of his area in an ill-judged bid to halt Mo Salah.

"It's the worst timing that it could be, but that's football. It's like the script from a movie so now we want a happy ending. It's devastating for Nick who has been playing so well and deserved to play in this cup final.

"It's only the second time in a 15-year career that I've come on in circumstances like that. We all feel for him, but what can you say to him? It's such a sad situation because he was looking forward to one of his biggest games.

"I knew that no matter what I can't play in the final and that's a strange situation for me and it's up to someone else to show they can play in front of 90,000 people."

Pope had already been beaten by confident finishes from Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo to ship two goals in a game for the first time since Newcastle's 2-1 defeat at Anfield in August, before he paid dearly for the daft dash that has left Karius on red alert for Howe's SOS call.

The 29-year-old arrived at St James' Park to little fanfare as a free agent five months ago and signed an extension in January to keep him on Tyneside until the end of the season.

Dubravka added: "He's not played much football but he's a very experienced player who looks good in training. As a group of keepers we're all very close, we support each other so I don't think this is going to be a problem.

"It's a special game of course and we're very close to achieving something big. It's up to us now to help Loris as much as we can to be prepared for this game and I'm sure he'll handle it well."

Allan Saint-Maximum - back to somewhere near his best after injury - went close and Dan Burn crashed a header against the bar as Newcastle performed better with 10 men than with 11.

But they failed to take their chances and posted a fourth game without a league win as their top four hopes took another dent. Callum Wilson continues to look a shadow of his lethal best as the England striker wasted a late opening to reduce the deficit as Howe's side stumbled to a first defeat in 18 Premier League games.

They remained fourth on Saturday night, six points ahead of the Reds who have a game in hand as a Newcastle side which only a few weeks ago was looking to haul in the top three is now starting to look anxiously over its shoulder at the chasing pack.

NEWCASTLE (4-3-3): Pope 3; Trippier 6 (Murphy 64, 5), Schar 4, Botman 5, Burn 5; S Longstaff 4, Joelinton 4 (Ritchie 70, 6), Anderson 5 (Dubravka 24, 7); Almiron 6 (Gordon 64, 6 ), Isak 5 (Wilson 64, 5), Saint-Maximin 7. 

LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson 8; Alexander-Arnold 7, Gomez 7, van Dijk 7, Robertson 7; Henderson 6 (Elliott 59, 6), Fabinho 6, Bajcetic 7 (Milner 59, 6); Salah 7, Nunez 7 (Firmino 59, 6), Gakpo 8 (Jota 59, 6). 

Referee: Anthony Taylor.