Everything Matthias Jaissle said on NUFC ‘anger’, Hull reaction, injuries & more

Newcastle United take on Hull City in the Premier League on Saturday - and here’s everything the Magpies’ head coach said ahead of the encounter.

Newcastle United head coach, Matthias Jaissle.

Newcastle United need a reaction against Hull City - in fact, they just need three points. A win, coupled with a performance, would be the perfect tonic after the first chastening week of the Matthias Jaissle era.

So, ahead of the clash, this is everything the head coach said about the upcoming encounter at St James’ Park, including an injury crisis, Sven Botman ‘love’, Jacob Murphy praise and a whole lot more on the ethos and thinking behind NUFC ‘vertical football’.

Any news on Anthony Elanga?

Still not a real update on Anthony, as I just spoke with him now, I think in the next 30 minutes (Thursday) he’s in the MRI, so we will get more clarity then. And then we hope that it’s not that serious.

Big blow if he’s out long-term?

Yeah, it’s sad. It’s really sad. After that great start he had, the team had, we counted on him definitely in the way we want to play. It’s a key strength in our squad. But we want to stay positive also when he’s out. Unfortunately, then we need to solve it differently. We have the ability in the squad also to adjust things. We believe in our players. We count on the others, and that’s always a chance also for the others.

With Elanga out, what options will you consider to replace him?

Yeah, I have some thoughts on that. Jacob (Murphy) was doing good. Murphy is an experienced player. He’s played that role many, many times. He’s also intelligent to know exactly what the gaffer is demanding from him and from him on that position in particular. But also there are other options. Not too many at the moment, as Amar (Dedic) will be also not able to play on Saturday, so it’s getting shorter and shorter. That must be tough.

Importance of Jacob Murphy

I mean, you saw that already that he gets the minutes, right? Even if Anthony was fit. He’s a really important player for our squad, not only on the pitch, also off the pitch. Really a leader who also communicates well and knows what it matters to be professional. So I’m really appreciating him. And on the pitch, I said that before also already that he’s so smart, so game-intelligent. He knows exactly his strength and he knows how to deliver then within our identity how we want to play football.

Any players coming back?

Unfortunately not. It doesn’t look that good for the Hull match, if I’m frank enough. But we’re still working on it. Two days left, and maybe there will be a miracle happening that one or the other is joining the squad. For now, it doesn’t look that good.

Will Dan Burn return after the international break?

I hope so. I really hope so. He’s working so professional, so hard like the other lads too. The progress is there. I don’t want to put too much pressure on it but we’re in the time frame.

Importance of Hull result after Leeds and ahead of a long international break?

Yeah, really important. First of all, to show the right reaction after the Leeds match. This is something we discussed now during the last days. We’re fully aligned, fully committed to show in front of our fans a clear reaction. And secondly, it’s always nice to finish the block before the national team break starts with a good result. That’s the second goal we have for that match. And we’re, again, also optimistic, even though there are a couple of challenges now. We have some injured players, not only Anthony, a couple of other players as well, missing. But again, we use that as an opportunity for others.

Some managers who like to stick rigidly to a plan, some change things depending on players they have available, the opposition. Which kind of a manager are you?

I’m really clear in the principles we want to show on the pitch. That doesn’t mean that we need to stick with the formation because if our 10 is 5 meters higher positioned and you suddenly talk about two strikers, we can adjust that easily also within the game. It’s just according to our principles we want to see and how we want to stress their position and how we lift that then on the pitch. Tactical ball is one thing but delivering then things is another thing. We’re really clear in the way we want to play with our principles behind that. That gives the players a clear framework. The formation is not too important.

Fan of the three-week international break?

First of all, I think with that amount of injuries it’s better for us that we have the break in that stage. Other than that, probably I would have enjoyed to continue now and improving and improving and improving. But we face it like it is. We cannot influence it. Hopefully after the national team break our injury list is a bit shorter.

Important for fans to stick with the young players?

They will. I’m really optimistic and I’m sure that they will support us 100%. They have a good feeling and good sense for what I experienced so far about the situation, about the challenges we have. Therefore, I’m really happy that we face Hull on the weekend at home.

What do you think of Hull City?

Huge respect to my colleague because he’s doing an incredible job. Clear identity. They know exactly what to do. They know exactly where their strengths are and they try to deliver that on the pitch and hurt their positions then with their strengths. This is something we need to be aware. We need to take their strengths away and using in the best possible way their weaknesses and then we’re going to have a good result on Saturday.

Pundits say you were bullied - do you agree?

With all the respect for all the pundits, we try to not listen to the external noise because otherwise you would be distracted too much so we’re focusing on just our analysis and on our potential and what we saw. I made it really clear what was in our eyes the reason that it was a really bad first half. We also deserve to tell the lads and tell ourselves the truth and that’s what we did and from there we start again.

Do the team need to be more aggressive?

Without going too much in detail, first of all you’re well informed. I’m not sure if I liked that because it was said in the locker room. But anyway, it’s something important for us to learn out of the first half. I mentioned it after the first half against Bournmouth that these are the fundamentals and yes, you called it aggressiveness in the duels. That’s one part of it, being ready for collecting the second balls. And if these small margins are missing, you saw that also statistic-wise, if that balance drops to the opposition, then you get punished in the Premier League. This is something that happened in the first half and we said that and there was all clarity in the room that the learning curve needs to be really fast. We don’t search for excuses, even with a young squad. We need to learn fast.

What is vertical football?

There are many, many different approaches within that aspect. It’s just the principle of being vertical in your approach. So that could be that you go straight away for the long ball, that you don’t even try to play out from the goalkeeper and just going for the aerial duels there. But that could be also that you have just the intention to have always the first few deep that you try to find the deepest option if that’s always possible. Not in football because if the opposition is taking away the depth then you need to find other solutions. You need to play with deep layoff patterns as an example without going too much in detail. You need to be versatile as well but the idea behind the players mindset after collecting a second ball after winning the ball that the first few is deep that you have that vertical approach that should be always there. To make it work properly, the word you also use is intensity.

First of all you need to be intense out of possession that you’re getting the ball if the opposition have the ball. So you need to be aggressive, intense. That’s also our approach that you have a good swarm behaviour. Ball orientated, full committed, also doing the last steps. If you win then the ball again then we come into the vertical approach but you use the chance the unorganised opponent structure to be vertical and score in the best scenario also goals within a couple of seconds.

Will you switch systems?

No. Absolutely the wrong approach. That could be something for some coaches but I explained that beforehand. The structure or the formation is not the key element. It’s how the players live the principles. If our wingers are five metres deeper, maybe you see a five back. If both wingers are five metres deeper, maybe you talk about a six back.

Is Sven Botman fit?

I’m fully convinced about Sven’s performances and that a player has also some downs at the moment or in a moment, in a season. That’s totally normal. We’re all human beings. Probably you also have a bad day once a year. Sven is a brilliant player with huge potential still. His previous injuries doesn’t affect him at all. He’s fit and he even fights for his team when he has a huge… on the knee. How do you say it in English? A huge cut. It doesn’t kill him. He’s a warrior. That’s what I appreciate a lot with him. He was just continuing going. I love that.

You spoke about how young the midfield ended up being the other day. Presumably Nico Gonzalez can’t beat each other again. How do you compensate for loss of Nico Gonzalez (concussion)?

It will be a young midfield. It will be a young midfield. I heard also from a pundit why I was playing with such young players as we have only young players in the squad. JJ (Jacob Ramsey) is injured as well so we trust him and this is our approach. I said that five weeks ago. It’s a brave journey the club is going through and I’m fully committed in that. Now if there’s one setback we shouldn’t delete our journey or our vision. We’re fully committed. We’re fully aligned. We anticipated that that something like that against Leeds happened or is happening also in the next weeks and months. It’s just on us to respond but still believing we don’t change things.

Any need for Sean Steur to apologise?

Not needed at all. He is apologising because he showed up as a young lad. I remember there were already games where everyone was celebrating him for his attitude, for his maturity at 18 years and this is exactly the thing where I tell him mistakes can happen, such as a pass which led then afterwards to a goal.

We can talk also if we could have avoided in the box then probably nobody would speak about it, so he gets the full confidence from my side.

Not a single doubt on him. He has pure quality at such a young age, how he responds. He still asks for the balls afterwards, so he’s not hiding and this is the right approach. Again from the coaching staff and I’m sure from the fans, he will get the full support.

Can you break down a low block?

I don’t can speak about the last season but as you know also Hull is doing an excellent job this season and not many teams find solutions against them. That shows already how difficult it is. We have a clear approach of course how we want to create chances, how we want to score goals that will be a key element. Not only talking about the intensity about the aggressiveness in the phase out of possession, we also need to stress them to have the intensity in possession to constantly penetrate the last line stress them there and I’m optimistic as well we have the quality on the pitch maybe not the experience that doesn’t count as an excuse to challenge them and to do good.