By OkayGoal
Newcastle United’s 1-0 defeat to Everton on Monday night was bad enough. What Matthias Jaissle said afterwards, and what happened to his late tactical note, has made the week even more uncomfortable on Tyneside.
Thierno Barry’s tap-in four minutes after half-time settled it at St James’ Park, and Everton have now beaten the Magpies twice in four days. The boos came at half-time and again at full-time, and Newcastle managed just two shots on target in the whole 90 minutes.
It is four defeats in five games in all competitions for Matthias Jaissle, and a second home defeat in a row. Then the head coach went into his press conference and, more or less, said his players hadn’t done what they were told.
What did Jaissle say about the game plan?
Jaissle was blunt. “Long balls was not the plan. It’s something we need to work on. We lack confidence; to come out of that, we need to stick together,” he said after the game.
Asked why William Osula had struggled to get into the game, he went further. “We could not bring him into situations. We need to jump the first lines with clear balance on how we want to play football. Just playing long balls is for sure not the sign he prefers. And it was not the plan; that is something you clearly need to mention,” Jaissle said.
He also admitted he could not explain the gap between the training ground and the pitch. “The team was training at a high level, but since the ref started the game, not much was seen. It’s difficult to understand,” he said. “Over the whole 90 minutes, it was not our game and our style of playing.”
This is the coach who talked up “vertical football” at the start of pre-season. On Monday there was very little of it, and he knows it.
The note that ended up on the floor
The most telling moment came in the closing stages. According to Chronicle Live, Jaissle sent a tactical note on to the pitch telling his side to go for broke and throw six players forward. Substitute Bazoumana Touré handed the piece of paper to Fabian Schär, and the Swiss defender quickly dropped it on the floor.
The plan had Touré on the left and Jacob Murphy on the right, with Yoane Wissa and Osula as a front two and Jacob Ramsey and Harvey Barnes just behind them. Touré did create a late chance for Wissa, but the overload never produced the equaliser.
Maybe Schär simply had no use for the paper by then. But a dropped note, on a night when the head coach said his players had not followed the plan, is not a great look.
Was Barry’s goal a foul?
Jaissle was also angry with John Brooks and his officials. The goal was checked for offside by VAR, but Newcastle felt Barry had caught Schär with an elbow on his way through. “In my eyes it is clearly a foul so a disallowed goal. Everything comes together. There’s a foul then we are not awake and they can penetrate our box,” Jaissle said.
Ramsey’s 86 seconds
Ramsey’s night summed it up. He came off the bench and was booked twice for late tackles, with just 86 seconds between the yellow cards (95:57 and 97:23). He was the first Newcastle substitute sent off since Jonjo Shelvey in the 3-2 defeat to Spurs, the first game of the PIF era, and it was his second red at St James’ Park in two seasons after he was sent off for two bookings against Man United last term.
Dan Burn’s message to the St James’ Park crowd
Captain Dan Burn fronted up afterwards, and the former season-ticket holder said he understood the boos. “I understand fan frustration. I get it. I’ve been a season-ticket holder in here and I understand what to expect from a Newcastle team, but it doesn’t make it easier to play here when you’ve got that,” he said.
Burn felt some of the squad had not experienced that kind of atmosphere before, and that the “nervous energy” carried on to the pitch, but he put the onus on the dressing room. “I think it’s us who drive them on and bring them with us, and we haven’t done that today,” he said.
His plea to the fans was simple. “Stick with it. I completely understand your frustrations, but now is the time for everyone to pull together. I really feel like we need you a lot at the moment,” Burn said. “It’s not from a lack of trying that we’re not getting results.”
Can Jaissle turn it round before the international break?
Monday’s result leaves Newcastle 13th, and the next stop is a trip to Fulham on Saturday, the last game before the November international break.
For us, Jaissle deserves some patience. He is working with a squad he did not build, and he has not yet had a proper transfer window to shape it. When we looked at what Amar Dedić brings to Jaissle’s system in the summer, the idea was a quick, brave side that plays through the lines. Eleven weeks on, that side has not shown up when it matters.
Our Newcastle vs Everton preview warned that David Moyes already had his number, and the Newcastle 0-1 Everton result proved it again. But going public about players ignoring the plan is a gamble. It either sharpens them at Craven Cottage, or it becomes the story of the next fortnight. A poor performance on Saturday, and the second option starts to look far more likely.