Jaissle says Newcastle players strayed from the plan as pressure grows
Newcastle United manager Matthias Jaissle says his players did not follow the plan in a 1-0 home defeat to Everton, and he is under growing pressure after a poor run of results.
Jaissle, a 38-year-old German coach, took charge in the summer after Eddie Howe left the club. He has had a difficult start. Newcastle sit 13th in the Premier League with 11 points from nine games, and they have won only two of their last seven matches.
Their recent run has included defeats by Leeds United, Coventry City and Aston Villa. Everton had already knocked them out of the Carabao Cup, the League Cup, before the league loss on Tuesday.
After the Everton game, Jaissle was blunt. He said his players had not followed the "plan" he had set out for them. Reuters reported his frustration at the time, describing the performance as a case of players going off script.
Asked about his own position, Jaissle did not point to outside support. He said he has "got more of a feeling from within the club" about how committed people are to him. It is a careful answer, and it leaves the question of his future open.
Jaissle has spoken warmly about his arrival in the past. When he was appointed, he said his teams are built on togetherness, hard work, intensity and a passion to improve every day. In August he said he had been made to feel welcome quickly, which had helped him settle into the job.
Newcastle's next game is at home to Fulham on Saturday, kick-off 15:00 GMT. A win would stop the slide and give the manager some breathing room. A fourth defeat in five would make the questions louder.
Sky Sports analyst Keith Downie has also looked at the squad problems Jaissle faces after a summer of major departures. Losing key players means new faces must settle quickly, and it takes time for a team to learn a new way of playing. Jaissle's problem is that the table does not wait.
For Newcastle's supporters, the next few days will be about one thing: whether the team can turn belief in the plan into points on the pitch.
