Fair to say that many (most?) Newcastle United fans were expecting Matthias Jaissle to make wholesale changes after the 4-1 defeat at Coventry City.
Alterations to the starting eleven that will be selected for the Aston Villa match.
Matthias Jaissle has though given a reality check.
Five of the nine players who missed the home win over Hull City due to injury issues were back in the matchday squad last night.
However, only Nico Gonzalez started the Coventry City having completed a period of time where concussion protocols had to be observed.
Burn, Dedic, Osula and Joelinton all came off the bench in the second half at the CBS Arena but couldn’t alter the course of an eventual 4-1 defeat.
For those Newcastle United fans who expected that quartet to now be under serious consideration to join Nico Gonzalez in the team to play Aston Villa on Saturday, Matthias Jaissle had this blunt response: “Unfortunately, the match minutes were really limited [for Burn, Dedic, Joelinton and Osula]…we need to be smart because we had so many injuries already, so we followed the advice. We took the guys to the limit of what they could do. I am happy that they are back but it will take another couple of weeks before they are physically back to their best again.”
With so many chances created against Coventry but not put in the back of the net, Matthias Jaissle then asked specifically about William Osula and what the striker’s position is with regard to making a return to the starting eleven: “Again, this was the maximum of the match minutes that I could give him…we need to see how he is improving over the next few days and weeks.”
A lot of thinking no doubt for Matthias Jaissle to do ahead of Saturday but quite clearly none of those just returned from injury are anything like 100% as yet.
No wonder really as Joelinton hasn’t played any competitive football for over five months, since the 1-1 draw at Forest in May. Dan Burn hasn’t played any competitive football since turning out for England this summer, Osula only the minutes he managed against Liverpool on the opening day of the season, Amar Dedic picking up an injury early in his Newcastle career and then trying to play on in the following match but then ruled out for over a month.
Against Hull City the only one of the eight outfield subs who had ever started a Premier League match previously was Fabian Schar, interesting to see if he comes into the manager’s thoughts now for Saturday. Sean Steur was excellent against Hull but is still only 18 and was replaced by Nico Gonzalez last night as the former Man City player back available. Does Matthias Jaissle consider the Dutch teenager for this Aston Villa test? Whilst Bazoumana Toure has showed plenty of promise so far when coming on as a sub in Premier League matches, including some moments against Coventry. However, he picked up what looked a very painful blow to his ankle last night and became a subbed sub, condition still unknown.
For Matthias Jaissle I think definitely a case of more questions than answers when it comes to picking his team against Villa.
My assumption would be that if the United boss did end up starting one or more of the likes of Dedic, Joelinton, Osula and Burn, it would be with the knowledge that they’d be very unlikely to be able to play anything like the full match against Villa.
Just one of the many questions/issues Matthias Jaissle will be pondering as he balances what best to go with when he names his team on Saturday.