By OkayGoal
Amar Dedic is Matthias Jaissle’s first signing as Newcastle United manager and the need behind it is obvious.
Newcastle are desperately short of full-backs, especially ones who can stay fit throughout an entire season. But filling a position is different to finding the right player, so what type of full-back are Newcastle actually getting, and how do they get the best out of him?
Newcastle roster needs someone like Amar Dedic
Newcastle desperately need full-backs. Kieran Trippier has left the club, Emil Krafth has left, and Matt Targett has left. That leaves only two fit senior full-backs at the club, Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento, neither of whom has managed to stay fit for an entire season. Newcastle need a senior, fully fit right-back available immediately for next week’s game at Liverpool.
Dedic solves multiple problems in one signing. The main one is his versatility. Right-back is his primary position, but he is comfortable at left-back too, having done it at Salzburg, briefly at Marseille, and even for Bosnia at international level.
He does not just fill in awkwardly on the wrong side either. He adds another tactical weapon, similar to what Livramento offers on the left, sometimes even looking better, with the ability to invert into central areas almost like a traditional inverted left winger cutting in on his right foot to shoot or whip in crosses.
Once Livramento is fully fit, Newcastle will have genuine competition on both sides, with both players needing to be at their best to hold their place.
The other significant thing about Dedic is that he represents something Newcastle’s summer business has not really done yet, succession planning.
He is not the Trippier replacement. He is a long-term succession plan for Tino Livramento, whose styles are similar with some important differences.
Livramento has under two years left on his contract, and interest from across the Premier League and Europe is already circling. If he does not sign a new deal, Newcastle will not be scrambling for a replacement. Dedic is ready-made, with Champions League experience, international experience with Bosnia, and World Cup football just this summer.
Scouting Amar Dedic, a profile
Dedic is best described as an attacking full-back, but that is a broad label. He is an aggressive, forward-thinking full-back who relies on movement on and off the ball and his ability to carry it, rather than someone like Trippier who prefers to play deeper and conduct play with his passing.
His ball carrying is one of his best traits. Against Real Madrid in the Champions League, he receives the ball on the right, comes under pressure, comfortably shifts inside his marker, recognises space in the Real Madrid structure, and drives the ball 30 to 40 yards up the pitch using a shift and feint to unbalance the defender, before drawing Trent Alexander-Arnold in and opening up a passing angle for a low cross into the box.
Amar Dedic vs Real Madrid (UCL)
🥇Successful Dribbles
4 Tackles
4 Clearances
6 Recoveries
7 Ground Duels WonAt Just 23, up against Vini JR & Mbappe 🔥🇧🇦 #NUFC pic.twitter.com/3IBiOt7MpB https://t.co/H81pMqxpIU
— 🇩🇪 (@JaissleEra) August 11, 2026
His data supports this: he sits in the 98th percentile for progressive carries but only the 28th percentile for progressive passes, meaning he overwhelmingly prefers to progress the ball by carrying it. He is also a genuinely good one-v-one dribbler, comfortable running directly at a full-back rather than turning back to recycle possession, and comfortable enough on his weaker foot to attack down either side. That includes a moment where he cuts inside past two defenders and strikes the crossbar with his left foot.
His movement off the ball is another highlight. He loves to overlap with pace and make supporting runs from deep or around the winger, and also makes clever inside runs into the box from the half-spaces. Against Real Madrid, he spots a 2v2 situation, and although the initial pass does not work, his overlapping run and cutback still create a dangerous opportunity. He is also a play-and-move player who does not always try to dribble everything himself, instead making it difficult for a tracking defender by combining and continuing his run, as seen against Newcastle when he nutmegs a pass into his own path before carrying the ball 20 to 30 yards up the pitch.
His crossing is a genuine upgrade on Livramento, whose delivery has often been poor. Dedic wraps his foot around the ball to generate pace, whip and dip, and while inconsistent at times, he produces moments of real quality, including a flat, pacey delivery for Bosnia that a striker somehow headed wide despite needing no jump to meet it.
Comparing the two players’ data radars shows Dedic clearly ahead in carrying, crosses and expected assists, the level of threat generated in the final third. Livramento, by contrast, excels defensively, particularly in defensive duels and duel win percentage. At his best, Livramento is an elite one-v-one defender with excellent agility, balance, pace and reading of an attacker’s intentions. Dedic is more inconsistent in that department.
Amar Dedic vs Tino Livramento, comparison matrix
How does Amar Dedic fit in at Newcastle United under Matthias Jaissle
Jaissle knows exactly what he is getting in Dedic, having managed him 52 times previously at Liefering and Salzburg.
To start with, Dedic already understands the aggressive, front-foot, vertical, direct football Jaissle will want to implement at St James Park, both on and off the ball.
Defensively, his ability to track runs in behind is genuinely impressive, reading passing triggers and staying alert to the runs required.
Against Real Madrid, when Camavinga plays a ball over the top for Vinícius, Dedic is already moving, initially looks briefly caught out but then he recovers well and reads the flight of the ball and heads it clear for a throw-in.
In another example when Trent Alexander-Arnold put in a disguised pass over the top, Dedic leaves his own man early when he spots danger behind his centre-back and then he uses his recovery pace to reposition and makes a clean tackle just as Federico Valverde looks to drive into a 1v1.
His comfort making multiple decisions in overloaded defensive scenarios is a strong fit for Jaissle’s demands.
His heat map shows he dominates the entire right-hand side of the pitch rather than sticking to a traditional zone between his own box and the halfway line. He hugs the touchline but drifts comfortably into inverted half-space positions too, a perfect profile for a modern right-back in this system.
Amar Dedic heatmap
The key question is which winger gets the best out of him, and currently that is not Anthony Elanga. Elanga is a direct winger who takes players on immediately and looks for early crosses rather than combination play, which does not create the pause needed for Dedic’s overlapping runs. Trippier was reportedly frustrated last season by a lack of pauses that would have allowed him onto the overlap in similar circumstances.
The type of winger who would maximise Dedic is an inverted playmaker who drifts into the half-space, similar to what he played alongside at Benfica, freeing the entire right flank for Dedic to attack, including long diagonals to catch wingers out of position.
How technical is he?
Dedic is a good technician who is comfortable on the ball, comfortable in tight areas, and capable of clean pass-and-move combinations, particularly when crossing.
His base passing technique is decent with some nice diagonal switches but he lacks a genuinely wide passing range.
Through balls and longer clearances can be skewed and while he is comfortable attempting to use his weaker foot, it remains inconsistent and sometimes erratic.
What about his physical profile?
Dedic is pacey with good acceleration, nice balance when carrying the ball and good agility in changes of direction, a solid profile for a Premier League full-back.
He lacks the strength to out-muscle opponents given a slighter frame, and while lean and capable of handling himself at times, he is not as robust as ideal when protecting the ball under pressure. This is somewhere he needs to develop if he were to become a top name in the English top tier.
His aerial numbers reveal a genuine weakness. He is competitive and wins the majority of duels against smaller wingers but can look frail and lacking in timing against a stronger aerial opponent (something we will again see a lot of PL managers exploit).
Dedic & his injury history
Newcastle do not just need another full-back, the Toons need one who can reliably cover Lewis Hall and Livramento (both of whom are already injury-prone).
The concern with Dedic is his own injury history, six games missed last season, six games missed the season before across two separate spells and 13 games missed the season before that, all muscle injuries which are inherently unpredictable.
The positive is that he has shown he can handle multiple competitions given that he was playing in Portugal’s Primeira Liga, the Champions League with Benfica and international football with Bosnia across 30 to 40 caps including full involvement at the World Cup. He has already played 90 minutes in a recent match against Hearts in Scotland, suggesting Newcastle are getting someone ready to play immediately while Livramento is out.
But the key question in this category is not whether he can play now, it is whether he can prove durability across multiple seasons of European football, something he has not yet demonstrated, and the step up in sprint volume and physical intensity from the Primeira Liga to the Premier League adds a genuine layer of readiness risk.
The genuine concern is Premier League readiness. He has never played in a top-five European league before, with his only previous exposure being a brief and underwhelming Marseille stint, which is a fair reason for some caution heading into the start of the season.