Newcastle United weren’t very good against Coventry City, and Matthias Jaissle has been dealt the second 4-1 defeat of his reign at the head of a much-changed Toon team.
Though Jaissle is adamant that Newcastle have made gains since being thrashed at Leeds United, it’s clear that this new-look side have structural issues on the road. In fact, hopes of rivalling some of the best form under Eddie Howe must surely be tempered now; a win would have taken the Magpies into the top four, but they are not yet Champions League challengers.
Frank Lampard side proved there are levels still to scale before this system fires on all cylinders.
How Newcastle played vs Coventry
Before the international break, Newcastle scored an attritional win over Hull City at St. James’ Park, bagging twice early on before sheltering against the Tigers’ second-half fightback.
Against Coventry, though, Jaissle’s side crumbled. To be frank, they weren’t effectively positioned, too open and vulnerable at the back, unable to click and combine in attack.
Indeed, it wasn’t just a leaky defence that thwarted Newcastle on Monday evening, but an inability to match the newly-promoted team’s intensity and aggression. These are supposed to be deep-rooted staples of this Newcastle side, boosted by the arrival of a manager in Jaissle who prizes a high-octane approach.
Newcastle might have retained 67% of the ball in Coventry, but they offered little, wasteful and uncertain.
In attack, the Toon simply didn’t pack a powerful punch. Yoane Wissa and Matias Fernandez-Pardo have cost the Magpies more than £100m in expenditure over the past year,
Why Wissa & Fernandez-Pardo struggled vs Coventry
Fernandez-Pardo joined Newcastle from LOSC Lille for around £50m at the end of the summer transfer window, and it would be fair to say that the Belgian attacker has not hit the ground running at centre-forward.
This is where he wants to play, but his pace and skill suggests that Jaissle may find better use of him in a left-sided role – especially given how Wissa has dropped to a creative, No. 10-type role to accomodate the new arrival.
Analyst Raj Chohan echoed this opinion, asserting after the game that Wissa “simply doesn’t have the intelligence & technical ability to play that role.”
This was clear against Coventry. Neither forward covered themselves in glory, and it’s surely clear now that the manager needs to revert to a more conventional offensive structure to help establish Newcastle as a top-half-of-table team once again.
|
Wissa & Fernandez-Pardo vs Coventry |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Match Stats |
Wissa |
Fernandez-Pardo |
|
Minutes played |
78′ |
90′ |
|
Goals + Assists |
0 + 0 |
0 + 0 |
|
Touches |
41 |
37 |
|
Shots (on target) |
2 (1) |
1 (1) |
|
Accurate passes |
21/26 (81%) |
19/25 (76%) |
|
Chances created |
0 |
1 |
|
Possession lost |
11x |
13x |
|
Dribbles completed |
1/1 |
2/2 |
|
Ball recoveries |
0 |
3 |
|
Def. contributions |
0 |
2 |
|
Duels won |
4/8 |
2/7 |
However, the woes of Wissa and Fernandez-Pardo have overshadowed one or two other poor performances, with one Toon veteran showing he may be on the way out when introduced against the Sky Blues.
No one is talking about how bad Newcastle veteran was
Newcastle still have experience running through their team, but in the case of Joelinton, the vice-captain may be up against it under Jaissle in bringing the finest football he showed under Howe’s wing for so many years.
Joelinton has come a long way since initially flopping as an D-grade striker in the Premier League, but there’s a sense now that he’s reaching the end of the road, no longer surrounded by Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali in the middle of the park.
But Joelinton deserves to be cut a bit of slack. He was introduced with Newcastle under the cosh, and this was his first game of the season after recovering from injury.
He won four duels and recovered three loose balls, also completing both of his dribbles from 28 touches, but Joelinton lacked composure and failed with his one attempted tackle, stumbling and then shrugged to the ground as Newcastle shipped their third goal of the evening as Ellis Simms struck – all but ending their hopes of a comeback.
It was hardly a convincing display, and Joelinton’s introduction even frustrated a few supporters, given that summer signing Sean Steur was left on the bench by Jaissle.
Signed from Ajax for £23m, the 18-year-old is a maestro, and has already shown that he is ready to adapt to the Premier League. His inclusion against Coventry might have helped Newcastle find a degree of control in the engine room.
Joelinton has a part to play this season, but it’s clear that Newcastle are evolving, and that he must play a bit-part role, helping guide this new batch of players up to the fore.
But without question, he needs to do better than he did against Coventry.
