'You saw it different to me' - Matthias Jaissle hits back & defends 'amazing' Newcastle United star
Matias Fernandez-Pardo is still finding his feet at Newcastle United, but Matthias Jaissle has been impressed with what he’s seen so far.
Newcastle United deadline-day signing Matias Fernandez-Pardo made his full home debut in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Hull City at St James’ Park.
The 21-year-old Belgian started up front for the Magpies, keeping his place in the side after a disappointing 4-1 defeat at Leeds United previously.
Fernandez-Pardo joined Newcastle and quickly stated his intent to be deployed in the No. 9 striker role. But in his four appearances so far, he is yet to threaten the goal with just one off-target shot and just 58 touches of the ball in total.
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In 74 minutes on the pitch against Hull, Fernandez-Pardo registered just 16 touches. To the untrained eye, it looked as though his impact was limited once again for the man tasked with spearheading Newcastle’s attack.
But head coach Matthias Jaissle saw the youngster’s performance differently, praising his work rate and energy off the ball. While the on-ball statistics don’t paint Fernandez-Pardo in an overly impactful light, his off-the-ball statistics were the best of any player on the pitch.
In addition to not being dispossessed during the match, the £51million signing recorded 28 sprints during the match, the most of any player and covered a lot of ground in order to apply pressure on Hull from the front.
When asked about Fernandez-Pardo’s lack of opportunities in front of goal when playing as a striker, Jaissle responded: “I was really happy with him.
“Maybe you saw it different, for me, he did an amazing job out of possession, especially how often he was stressing the opposition, even the keeper, that gave us this confidence to be in a higher position.
“Earlier the second balls, not defending their own box, so all these small margins again are affecting the whole team performance, so he did his job on a really high level. And then also in possession, he's threatening the opposition, even though maybe you don't see it too often, but with his movement, with his speed up in front, he's causing the opposition many problems.”
Fernandez-Pardo will now join up with the Belgium squad for the upcoming Nations League matches away against Italy, at home to Turkey and home and away against France.