Matthias Jaissle's Newcastle United Faces Bayer Leverkusen Defeat
Matthias Jaissle’s first taste of St James’ Park as Newcastle United head coach ended in defeat, a 2-1 reverse to Bayer Leverkusen. The scoreline, though, was not what he chose to dwell on in the dressing room.
Instead, he picked out a teenager.
Seventeen-year-old Mason Miley, starting for the club for the first time and forced off with cramp, earned a public salute from his new boss.
“This is the attitude we need,” Jaissle told his players. “Really suffering until the tank is empty.”
He will need a lot more of that this season. Whoever else walks through the door.
A club in fast‑forward
Newcastle are pushing ahead with a move for Benfica right-back Amar Dedic, and Jaissle was without Dan Burn, Tino Livramento, Bazoumana Toure and William Osula on Saturday. The absentees mattered, but the pattern was familiar.
As in the midweek defeat to Everton, the gaps in this squad were hard to ignore. Experience is thin. Help is required before the window closes on 1 September.
“It’s important that there will be something done in the transfer market,” Jaissle said. “I think everyone is aligned on that.”
It has already been a summer of upheaval on Tyneside. The last time Newcastle played at St James’ Park, back in May, Eddie Howe was still in the home dugout. Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier, Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon all started.
That feels a long time ago.
Jaissle has since been handed the reins. Guimaraes, Tonali and Gordon have been sold. Four outfield signings have arrived from the continent, all of them 20 or under. The only older recruit, goalkeeper Lukas Hornicek, is still just 24.
“Transition” is the word the new head coach keeps returning to. He is not alone.
Burn, now club captain, admitted in his programme notes that walking back into the training ground this week felt like joining a different club.
“Change is healthy sometimes,” the centre-back wrote. “It’s going to take a little bit of time.
“We’re in a little bit of transition and it’s an exciting time to be a part of. There’s a big responsibility on the senior players who are left to keep driving the standards.”
That responsibility was underlined inside the first minute.
A nightmare start, and a kit farce
Hornicek’s first real involvement in front of the Gallowgate was to turn and retrieve the ball from his own net. Just 44 seconds had gone when Ibrahim Maza curled Leverkusen in front from outside the box, prompting a sharp slap of the hands from Jaissle on the touchline.
Newcastle looked disjointed, and not just in their pressing. By the time the first-half hydration break arrived, the game had descended into a farce of colours. The home side’s black and white shirt with blue trim clashed badly with Leverkusen’s mint away kit, also carrying a blue pattern.
The crowd let the officials know what they thought with a chorus of boos. Newcastle used the pause to rip things up – literally. Off came the home shirts, on went the lilac third strip, and Jaissle grabbed his tactics board.
The effect was almost immediate. Passes started to find their targets. Angles appeared. The game, at last, had some shape.
And from a set-piece, Newcastle finally landed a punch.
Elanga’s in-swinging corner was wicked, the kind defenders hate. Malick Thiaw attacked it at the back post, climbed highest and thumped a header past Mark Flekken. St James’ Park had its roar.
What it didn’t have was sustained threat. For all the effort, Newcastle rarely looked like scoring again.
Leverkusen ruthless, Newcastle blunt
The visitors always carried a sharper edge in the final third. That told after the break.
Victor Boniface, given a yard too much inside the box, skipped away from Sean Steur and drilled a low finish into the bottom corner. Clinical, simple, and enough to win it.
Newcastle huffed, but they did not truly open Leverkusen up again. The rawness of Jaissle’s side was obvious. So was the lack of seasoned heads to steady things when the tempo dipped.
Jaissle, though, refused to sound the alarm. One more friendly remains – Strasbourg on Sunday – before Liverpool arrive here for the Premier League opener.
“I was so happy to see the atmosphere right now so I can’t even imagine what it will look like against Liverpool when the stadium is full and we get the whole support,” he said.
That is where his message is pointed: outwards, to the stands.
“We need to stick together. With these challenges now, this transitional moment, we need the fans together with the players and the staff.”
A new coach, a stripped-back squad, kids pushed to the front and a captain talking about responsibility. The transition is no longer a theory on a whiteboard; it is happening in real time, in front of 50,000 people.
Liverpool are next. How quickly can this new Newcastle grow up?
