Matthias Jaissle got this spot on after Newcastle United's defeat to Everton - plenty will disagree
Newcastle United’s players were at fault for the defeat at Everton - not Matthias Jaissle.
Matthias Jaissle cannot shoulder the blame for Newcastle United’s Carabao Cup defeat at Everton. Not this time.
The Premier League’s newest, and perhaps most inexperienced, head coach had rightly been scrutinised after defeats to Coventry City and Aston Villa. His system had obvious flaws; his side were too easy to play through and struggled to create chances.
The opening 45 minutes at Crystal Palace on Sunday was more of the same. However, second half, Jaissle saw a response. A 2-0 win, two well-worked goals and a rather comfortable clean sheet gave the Magpies belief heading into the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
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And even despite their 3-1 defeat, his system arguably looked the most functional it has been over 90 minutes this season.
Newcastle's 28 shots compared to Everton's 11 is one metric that suggested the system allowed them to work themselves into promising goalscoring positions, but had zero cutting edge until Dan Burn headed in a consolation late on.
Two of the four starting attackers were at the club pre-takeover five years ago, which tells its own story.
Then, at the other end, Jaissle was let down by his players making woeful individual mistakes, and not for the first time this season.
“We are of course disappointed with the result, it's also a bit shocking at the moment, because overall the game was not that bad, but it's a bit the story of the season so far, that in situations where it really counts, we lack in the clinical approach to solve the situations,” Jaissle said after the game.
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“Just think about the first one, this is again a no-risk zone, where we said, clear the ball, and nothing happens, and a couple of seconds later you concede a goal out of nothing.
“The second one is also frustrating. In my point of view, we deserve to have a penalty on the other hand, and then you miss that in a transition to defend their own box, which is again for me difficult to accept, we have clear rules on how to behave in these matters.
“And in the third one, again a critical ball loss when you had possession, and the possession is punishing you on that level, pretty clear. These are the things we need to learn quickly.
“And on the other hand, I think you also saw the game and the statistics, we had many, many occasions, many opportunities to score, big chances as well, and also in their box we need to be more clinical to get a different result.”
And Jaissle is right. He won't name names, but I will.
For the first goal, Amar Dedic, initially under no pressure whatsoever, failed to shield the ball out of play and lost possession as James Garner broke the deadlock.
For the second, Dan Burn lost out in the middle of the pitch, and Jacob Ramsey was too busy complaining to the referee to prevent Hayden Hackney from being given the space to ghost into the box.
And for the third, Dedic misplaced a pass. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall broke forward and found Thierno Barry. Burn tried to read the cross instead of keeping track of the goalscorer.
This isn’t to say Jaissle is free from criticism going forward, clearly there is still a lot that needs to be done, but their cup exit on Merseyside was far from his fault. It’s time his players took some blame.