In his latest Reporter Notebook, Sky Sports News' Keith Downie looks into what is going wrong at Newcastle United. Matthias Jaissle's side have lost three of their last four Premier League games to slip to 11th place in the table and making Sunday's trip to Crystal Palace - live on Sky Sports - absolutely crucial. Newcastle are right at the bottom of the table when it comes to shots against and xG against and that must be a concern for the manager.
Yes, it's still early in the season and there is plenty of mitigation given how late he and his staff arrived in the summer, but unless that improves, it's going to be a very difficult season for the St James' Park club. The 'vertical' style of football will work anywhere given time, the German claims, but the Premier League is punishing and Jaissle is having to learn as he goes. For me, he is trying to put square pegs into round holes to put a team together within his identity.
But I'm not certain he has the players at his disposal to play the way he wants at this moment in time. For example, Yoane Wissa has been used as a No 10 and in the last 10 minutes against Aston Villa last weekend even as a No 8. Joe Willock has also been deployed deeper as a 6 and new £51m signing Mathias Fernandez-Pardo has played largely as a No 9.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player For me, all three of those are playing out of position and it has shown in performances. In recent games, Newcastle appear too easy to play through, the two-man midfield is overrun, and the defence are exposed. It's totally understandable that he wants to give his style a good go, but a more pragmatic approach may help stabilise things to get through the current choppy waters.
Jaissle hasn't been helped by an early-season injury crisis that has seen Dan Burn, Joelinton, Anthony Elanga, Amar Dedic, Tino Livramento and Jacob Ramsey, among others, all on the sidelines. But some of those players have now returned and he needs to work them back in while they are still getting up to speed. The lengthy injury list was the last thing he needed when he was already chasing his tail after a turbulent summer.
Newcastle are clearly missing the experience of Kieran Trippier, Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon, and it is a much younger and inexperienced squad Jaissle has inherited from the one that finished last season under Eddie Howe. It's the set up and it will take a while for the players to get used to Jaissle's ideas and plan. I think he needs to play an extra midfielder [Newcastle have the players for a 4-3-3 from the Howe tenure] to make the team a bit harder to beat.
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