It has been a turbulent start to Newcastle United's season under Matthias Jaissle as the Magpies sit in 12th place after ten games, one place higher than they were at this stage last season under Eddie Howe.
Three wins, three draws and four defeats. It's been a mixed bag of results to take in after a summer of reset. But is this the level to be expected of Newcastle? Relegation doesn't look likely, but neither does qualification for European Football.
They've had slow starts to a season before, so is the overreaction all for nothing, and do we just need to accept that mid-table may well be the ceiling for this iteration of Newcastle United.
Magpies struggling for form.
Well, after ten games and a summer spending over £200M, Newcastle United are still in a similar position to where they were for much of last season: struggling for consistency.
Newcastle have placed a heavy bet on young players, whose game time has been limited until recently, with Sean Steur receiving his first start against Fulham and the likes of Aladji Bamba barely seeing the pitch at all.
The story of the season has been struggling in both boxes, with attacking threat and defensive solidity both hard to come by right now.
15 big chances missed, with still no fix to their striker problems. Yoane Wissa and William Osula have underperformed and Matias Fernandez-Pardo hasn’t really got going yet. Barely a threat in the box, with them being 17th in shots on target, at only 3.4 and 18th in the xG table.
That's not even taking into account how much of a mess they are in defence, too: 16 goals conceded and the most clearances in the League, at 32.4, which highlights the immense [ressure the Magpies have been under.
The gaps have been too big all over the pitch and they have paid the ultimate consequence for it, most recently giving away their lead against Fulham. Not good enough at both ends, with no identity or game plan, which is why they sit 12th after ten games.
Panic and worry have started to set in, with their next set of fixtures including Arsenal, Brighton, Manchester United, and Sunderland. But it's easy to forget that Newcastle have had slow starts before.
Slow starts aren't new for the Magpies.
Slow starts have happened on Tyneside rather often over the last few season; if anything, Newcastle are in the exact same position they were in after ten games last season, with the exact same record barring being one place better off than under Eddie Howe.
If you want to go even further back, in their first season back in the League after being promoted for the second time from the Championship in 2017, with Rafa Benitez in the dugout, they had four wins, two draws, and five defeats.
The only caveat is that Benitez had a smaller budget and a smaller squad. Now their form dipped during the winter, as they won only once after the November international break.
They wouldn't win a league game until February, when they beat Man Utd 1-0. In the spring, they picked up wins over Southampton, Huddersfield, Leicester and Arsenal.
The Magpies went on to finish 10th that season after a final-day victory over Chelsea. But they survived the dip, built a run of results against sides they needed to beat, and cemented their safety without any final-day drama.
Mid-table is where Newcastle are currently.
It would be naive to suggest that Newcastle are safe from any threat of relegation this season, but it doesn’t feel like that’s where they will finish, nor does it feel like European football is likely either.
This squad is much the same as when Benitez was here, and is in part the same side that finished 13th last season.
This is just where Newcastle are at currently, as they try to figure out their identity under Jaissle, and there will be games where they win two or three in a row and then go on a prolonged spell without results.
Mind you, Jaissle is still new to the league, and the club is doing better than the Opta-expected points table suggests, which has them in 18th with the same record of results Howe had at this stage last season.
Newcastle may continue to struggle after the international break, but they don't look much worse than they did last season and are still suffering from many of the same problems that led to that mid-table finish.
For that reason alone, patience is warranted with Jaissle, because there were small improvements against Fulham, as the Magpies try to maximise points against teams in the bottom half of the table.
They did so against Crystal Palace and managed to get a point against Fulham. Jaissle's tactics and system can be criticised, but the results so far are not much different from this time last year, which is why time is on Jaissle's side and why there's a strong case for continued patience.
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