I think a lot of fans don’t understand the reality with these Newcastle United players.
Matthias Jaissle is tunnel vision for many Newcastle fans.
Of course, is the media feeding it too much, or is it lighting the fuse?
Journalists and their bosses want to incite the club’s supporters and potential customers by wanting to make it all about Matthias Jaissle.
A sack of it or something back. Constantly putting the NUFC Head Coach in the firing line is often done with obvious disdain.
The reality is that we have lost 7 out of 10 Newcastle United players.
The likes of Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali were still at their level at 7 out of 10 unless they had a big off day, which happens very rarely.
Kieran Trippier caught up to them at the same age, I’d say Fabian Schar, but he’s turning 35 very soon and is no longer automatically first choice.
Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon were also 7 out of 10, but slightly different from Bruno and Tonali. They weren’t 7 out of 10 every match because they were skilled players and relied mostly on serving, but over the course of a season they were elite players and were guaranteed to average 7 out of 10 and more!
Now we have Lewis Hall, who is our only guaranteed 7 out of 10 player and is currently an elite player above the rest of the squad.
We’ve had other Newcastle United players under Eddie Howe who regularly managed 7 out of 10 or better, indeed they have runs BUT they had to work massively for it.
With the likes of Murphy, Willock, Longstaff, Almiron, Joelinton and indeed Burn, they need to play at their best to be on par with the naturally more talented players.
The reality is that almost all Newcastle United players now have to be at their best in a match to be good enough.
Sometimes they manage, sometimes they don’t.
If they all manage together, we can still potentially give everyone a game.
If they can’t all do that, we’re in trouble. If some have and some don’t, the game can go either way.
I think that has been the reality of the season so far and will continue to be.