This is not going to end well, Matthias Jaissle and Newcastle United

Newcastle United must replace Mattieus Jaissle immediately.

I sincerely hope that I look back at this article in two months and I am forced to eat a massive slice of humble pie, but alas, I fear not.

If Newcastle United do not replace Jaissle ASAP they will be in a relegation battle at Christmas and will have wasted two months persisting with a manager who is clearly out of his depth in the Premier League.

We have all seen this season before and we all know how it is going to play out. Jaissle is a nice guy but completely naive in footballing terms.

I am genuinely fearful of the result every time I watch a Newcastle match. We have not convinced for an entire match during any of the pre-season, in any cup game, or in any league game, so far this season.

It’s not just that we haven’t been convincing in any of those games, there is no structure or clear identifiable plan that you can see from the team and we have looked vulnerable in every single one of those games. There is a clear pattern here.

This is not a case of getting the fundamentals right as Matthias Jaissle puts it. Yes, it goes without saying, that giving 100% commitment in every game to winning every ball, every second ball and every duel are some of the most important features of a modern successful footballing team. But this is not the main issue that everyone can see here. It is a tactical, system and coaching problem.

I just hope the higher ups realise they have made a massive mistake and rectify it sooner than later. However, I believe that the Saudi Arabia PIF and the Reubens will persist with Jaissle and will not make the change that is clearly necessary, until they have no choice and have put the entire Newcastle United fanbase through the wringer.

Relegation and a complete reset may just make them wake up though. Losing three quarters of the value of a company that you have heavily invested in does tend to have that effect.

So, if the inevitable happens and the Newcastle United owners stick with Matthias Jaissle until his position becomes completely untenable, is there a way for him to adapt in order to save his job and reputation?

As any professional or academic of any note will point out, it is the easiest thing in the world to criticise and point out the problems and flaws with something or someone but much harder to provide a workable solution. I’m sure we have all experienced or suffered with this issue during our working or personal lives.

A productive and balanced critique is much more valuable if it offers both constructive criticism and practical solutions to the problem or issue at hand, so for what it’s worth, here is my take.

Newcastle United do not have the profile of personnel within the squad to play a 4-2-3-1 system. We do have different qualities however but not the correct personnel for that system. Jaissle either refuses or is unable to see this fact.

Everyone in the stadium can see that we are constantly being overrun in midfield and we need an extra body in there.

There are two current solutions available, the first one being where Jaissle persists with a 4-2-3-1 and one or more of the forwards or overlapping full-backs drops deeper into a higher midfield position to provide options for the double pivot to play out from the back when we are in possession, but also drops deeper again when we are out of possession to provide an extra body in there to limit the opposition options for moving forward.

If none of the forwards have the tactical awareness to know when to stay high and when to drop deep, coach it into them, that’s your job!

The second and preferred option is to play a 4-3-3.

If Jaissle thinks that Gonzalez and Steur are not strong enough to play together as a two, put Lewis Miley, Joelinton or whoever in there alongside them and play the 4-3-3 until we have the right profile of players for the 4-2-3-1.

In a 4-3-3, Gonzalez and Miley are solid and Steur can offer more creativity going forward to play through lines. This also puts an extra body in the middle to reduce the opposition options when they are in possession for going forward and further allows Dedic and Hall to get forward to offer the clear attacking threat that we have all witnessed in the opening games.

I do not see any of these changes being applied anytime soon however. I was encouraged by Jaissle’s early press conferences as he appeared as if he was going to be tactically flexible. However, the reality is he is tactically inflexible, because he doesn’t yet have enough management experience to adapt his rigid beliefs to best suit a system for the players he has available to him.

It seems that his idea of ‘vertical’ football consists of bypassing the midfield and humping long balls up front. Playing this version of football is archaic and can never be successful in the modern era.

It’s really disappointing to say but the writing is already on the wall for Matthias Jaissle. Let’s hope the PIF and Reubens take action sooner rather than later so that all is not already completely lost this season.

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