I have to say, this looks a very impressive Newcastle United Under 21 team.
I have listed below a full side, plus two subs.
For the 2026/27 campaign, a Premier League Under 21 player is anyone born on or after January 1, 2005.
All of the 13 Newcastle United players qualify for that.
All of them seen as extras to the senior 25 man Premier League squad Newcastle United will announce after the summer 2026 transfer window closes.
The great bonus thing is, seven of these thirteen NUFC players haven’t even turned 20 yet.
20 Ewen Jaouen
19 Leo Shahar
18 Henry Johnson
21 Miodrag Pivas
20 Dylan Charlton
17 Mason Miley
20 Lewis Miley
18 Sean Steur
20 Aladji Bamba
20 Bazoumana Toure
19 Sean Neave
18 Rory Finneran
19 Trevan Sanusi
The only small problem is, these 13 Under 21 players are also the ones Newcastle United are now relying on as part of the first team preparations for the season.
All of the lucky 13 played this weekend at St James’ Park against Bayer Leverkusen or Strasbourg, whilst actually three of them played minutes on both Saturday and Sunday.
On Sunday, Newcastle United drew 1-1 with Strasbourg (then lost 3-2 on penalties), the French side last season got to the semi-finals of both the UEFA Conference League and the French Cup, as well as finishing eighth in Ligue 1.
As well as those ranked as Under 21 players, also involved against Strasbourg were Schar (34), Burn (34), Willock (27), Ramsey (25), Murphy (31), Osula (23). Out of those half dozen senior players I would guess only maybe Osula and Ramsey might be starters against Liverpool on Sunday. Whilst Burn and Schar were only capable of playing 45 minutes each yesterday due to extended World Cup break and recovering from injury respectively.
On Saturday it was a 2-1 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen. The German club last season finished sixth in the Bundesliga, got to the semis of the German Cup and reached the Champions League last 16 (the same as NUFC).
As well as the Under 21s who featured, there were also these more experienced Newcastle United players who featured against Bayer Leverkusen: Hornicek (24), Thiaw (25), Botman (26), Hall (21), Barnes (28), Elanga (24), Woltemade (24), Wissa (29).
I am not for one second claiming that it will sure to be suddenly alright on the night (day) when Newcastle United face Liverpool. Far from it, I think we are going to be in for a tough season and a huge challenge for Matthias Jaissle and a much-changed United squad from last season.
However, to be going way over the top on criticism following these two friendly defeats is very harsh. I think Matthias Jaissle will absolutely accept the challenge he faces and the German Head Coach has been handed such a tough assignment. A tough assignment not helped at all by a squad that has lost four of the real quality players (Tonali, Bruno, Trippier, Gordon) as well as other players leaving and as things stand, a not totally convincing collection of established/experienced players backed up by so many young and inexperienced ones.
This weekend put that fully on show and I think in the circumstances against two decent opposition teams who could utilise their full squads on each day, the results and performances to an extent, weren’t disastrous.
I have long thought that this idea of playing two games the weekend before a new season was stupid. However, to do it this time was way beyond stupid and those senior staff need to take a long hard look at themselves. It may sound great promoting this as a ‘St James’ Park weekended’ but the reality is that Newcastle United have never had a squad strong enough to put out two viable teams on consecutive days and this time it was really shown up.
Newcastle United should have won anyway against Strasbourg and I think if Matthias Jaissle had only had the one friendly against them, then United would have won comfortably this weekend.
Photo by The Mag
If it had been all his available players able to face only Bayer Leverkusen, I doubt Newcastle would have lost and may well have won. At the very least Matthias Jaissle would have been able to out out what he considers his best available team just ahead of the competitive stuff, at a time when the players are reaching a level of fitness to do themselves justice hopefully.
Instead we had this mishmash of nonsense split across two days and the manager set to face Liverpool with far from ideal preparations, on top of what was already such a tough situation.
If ever a match needed a St James’ Park crowd truly behind a manager and the players on the pitch, no matter what happens during the 90+ minutes, then it is next Sunday against the scousers.