One loss. That's all it took for a decent portion of Newcastle United's fanbase to turn on Matthias Jaissle.
Yes, the performance was abhorrent. Yes, it deserves some criticism. Yes, there wasn't a lot of positives to take from the game in any sense.
But that is the German's first competitive defeat... can we all just calm down a bit?
A concerning evening in Leeds
I'm not going to sit here and pretend that the performance was anything short of unacceptable.
We literally collapsed into pandemonium the moment Nico Gonzalez came off injured and never even looked like troubling James Trafford, barring the late Bazoumana Toure consolation.
The midfield might as well have not been there, once again the backline looked decidedly shaky and uncertain, and the lack of poise going forward was damning. In fact, the only positive is that if Hornicek hadn't been there the score could well have been worse than it was.
But even with all of that, some of the reaction I've seen online has been nothing short of unbelievable.
What did we expect?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we not know this season, this manager and these new players would take time?
The manager has been saying it since he came in, the hierarchy has been open about what to expect, even Eddie Howe was saying it when he was in charge at the beginning of the window - yet it still seems that the fans are looking for reasons to be overly negative.
And perhaps Jaissle has fallen foul of his good start in terms of results, leading to copious amounts of unnecessary backlash following the Leeds defeat. But one thumping away from home where, let's be honest, we looked every bit of the young, naive team we had out on the pitch, is not going to define Jaissle's tenure as the reaction of many would suggest.
From patience to panic
The worst part about it is, if you had looked at Newcastle United social media spaces before the season, you would have seen everybody agreeing and understanding that we need to be patient.
But then, like clockwork, five games unbeaten followed by one defeat leads to a humungous meltdown which has even led to some trying to point-score with "I told you so" comments regarding the departure of Eddie Howe.
Being patient with Jaissle doesn't mean ignoring what happened last night, we can all see the genuine tactical problems it has highlighted. But there is a very big difference between recognising those problems and deciding that they prove the entire project is doomed to fail - something which Newcastle fans are currently failing to understand in a big way.
There will be more bad performances, more tactical questions, and definitely more defeats. But if us as Newcastle fans genuinely understood this was going to be a long-term rebuild, we can't suddenly abandon that patience after the first big bump in the road.
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