Matthias Jaissle has not been shy about making his feelings known since taking charge at Newcastle United, but the head coach was especially forthright in the away dressing room at Elland Road on Monday night. It followed a chastening 4-1 defeat against Leeds United – Newcastle’s first loss of the campaign.
The players had previously seen an unhappy Jaissle in training during the opening weeks of his reign. This, though, was a different level of confrontation. “There was all clarity in the room that the learning curve needs to be really fast,” Jaissle said a few days on.
Even during a previous five-game unbeaten run, there was a recognition within the club that this was “always going to be a work in progress” following a summer of huge change. Newcastle have gone from having one of the most experienced starting line-ups in the Premier League last season to the second-youngest this time around. Yet the manner of their first defeat still came as a jolt.
Much will now be learned from how Jaissle’s team respond against an in-form Hull City on Saturday. “If you’re tougher in the duels, if you’re more aggressive, if you’re more sharp and hungry to collect the second balls, then it will be automatically a huge step already,” Jaissle said. “That means that you’re more dominant, that you have more possession, and then that leads also to the fact that you threaten the opposition much more. So they will be the elements where we will focus on and there will be a reaction.”
Jaissle was parachuted into the hot seat just three weeks before the start of the season after predecessor Eddie Howe stepped down. He is still adapting to the Premier League, and injuries to, among others, Dan Burn, Joelinton, Anthony Elanga and William Osula have hardly helped in that regard. No team have faced more shots (76) in the opening weeks of the season in the top flight, while at the other end Newcastle have been averaging little more than three efforts on target per game in the league.
The visitors struggled to gain a foothold against an aggressive Leeds side even before influential midfielder Nico Gonzalez went off with a concussion in the 19th minute. Vertical football is Jaissle’s trademark, in an effort to “stress” the opposition, but too often Newcastle’s main tactic appeared to be punting the ball forward for Yoane Wissa and Matias Fernandez-Pardo to chase hopefully. Leeds’ three towering centre-backs outnumbered the pair, and Newcastle were also swarmed in midfield after Jaissle stuck with his preferred two-man pivot.
However exposed Jaissle’s system was, though, that does not excuse those on the field failing to do the basics from the off against one of the most physical sides in the league. A meek Newcastle lost 56% of their duels in the first half against Leeds, and defenders Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman were bullied by Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who scored twice. A warning had previously been sounded when Newcastle failed to match Bournemouth’s intensity and found themselves 2-0 down after just 35 minutes earlier this month. Jaissle’s team showed admirable grit and spirit to come back and draw that game at St James’ Park, but a similar response was never on the cards in West Yorkshire. No wonder one or two Newcastle players threw out their palms apologetically as they trudged over to the away end at full-time.
Jaissle repeatedly stressed his “fundamentals” – being physical, intense and competitive in duels – were “non-negotiable”, and how his players needed to take losing a duel personally. He spent the bus journey home digging into the detail behind the defeat with his analysts. Just as Jaissle has not allowed himself to get too high following positive results, he has not tended to emotionally rip up the foundations after a setback either, as former Red Bull Salzburg midfielder Zlatko Junuzovic explained. “They analysed the situation and, where necessary, made one or two adjustments, but nothing drastic,” he said of Jaissle’s approach to defeats during their time in Austria. “I think he’s still in a phase of figuring things out [at Newcastle], where he has to see for himself which players fit his system and which ones don’t.”
Jaissle, 38, may still be a relatively young manager but he has experience to fall back on in that regard. It was a different level, a different sort of capitulation and a different squad, but he also suffered a bruising away defeat at a similar point of his reign at Al-Ahli after the Saudi Pro League side were hammered 5-1 by Al-Fateh in 2023. Whether that difficult night in Leeds proves a similarly valuable learning experience, or whether this campaign is characterised by further ups and downs, remains to be seen. “We don’t search for excuses, even with a young squad,” Jaissle said. “We need to learn fast.”