Matthias Jaissle answers the £73m question all Newcastle United supporters are asking
Newcastle United boss Matthias Jaissle was asked if Nico Gonzalez and Sean Steur can play together.
Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle insists Nico Gonzalez and Sean Steur can play together in the same midfield.
Gonzalez returned from a head injury to start Monday night’s 4-1 defeat at Coventry City, with Steur dropping to the bench, despite Jaissle waxing lyrical about the Dutchman following the 2-1 win over Hull City before the international break.
In fact, the 18-year-old did not even make it off the bench at the CBS Arena. Asked after the game why Steur was left out, Jaissle said: “Because in that position Nico Gonzalez was starting. Therefore, we decided to play Nico.”
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Jaissle’s explanation immediately raised questions over whether Gonzalez and Steur could feature alongside each other, but Jaissle has clarified that he is open to the possibility.
“There could be a way,” said Jaissle. “Of course, from the player profile, they are quite similar due to their qualities and how they interpret a position, but there is always a potential also to see both.”
And that could potentially happen as early as Saturday, with Jaissle admitting that Steur is “knocking on the door” for a place in the starting XI for the Premier League match against Aston Villa at St James’ Park.
“Of course he's knocking on the door due to his quality,” said Jaissle. “He shows that in the training sessions.
“This is a player I mentioned many times where I believe that we have so much joy and fun with him in the future here at the club. But he needs also time.
“He had that up and downs already during the season. Nico did a good job as well, even though we lost against Coventry. So he's knocking on the door and I'm aware of it and he should just continue developing.”
Newcastle head into another home match aiming to bounce back from a heavy away defeat, which they did successfully last time out by following up the 4-1 loss at Leeds by beating Hull.
Losing back-to-back Premier League away games by four goals or more for the first time since 2012 has sparked debates around Jaissle’s 4-2-3-1 system, but the 38-year-old believes the Coventry defeat was more down to indivdual errors rather than any structural problems.
Jaissle said: “It's never easy now after conceding four goals to talk about the structure and what causes us the problems. But you saw the match as well and in that match against Coventry, we made too many individual mistakes and then you cannot talk about formation or about the tactical approach.
“So these things we need to avoid, definitely, otherwise you get punished in that league. We're aware of that and even though we're a young squad we need to learn fast.
“This is the message now towards the players that we need to learn fast as an individual but also as a group to avoid these things and then I'm sure that we're coming back on the right track straight away.”
Unai Emery’s side Villa head to the North East full of confidence after beating Fenerbahce 6-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday night.