Buried in the weeds of yesterday’s shambolic performance against Everton was one of the more baffling decisions Matthias Jaissle has made so far during his time as Newcastle United manager.
In the 64th minute, as the Magpies searched for an equaliser, albeit in a decidedly subdued manner, the German took off Nico Gonzalez and brought on Sean Steur.
Now bringing on Steur isn’t the problem in that change. In fact, it adheres to some of the more piercing cries from the Geordie faithful who want the young Dutchman to get more minutes.
The issue is that he took off Gonzalez to do so, leaving Joelinton, who hadn’t even mustered up the spirit to crash around the pitch in his usual bullish manner, at the heart of Newcastle’s disaster.
While the change, in isolation, could probably be explained by some unknown tactical nuance that Jaissle was trying to achieve, the main concern with it actually resonates beyond just the Everton defeat.
It was yet another example of Jaissle’s seeming refusal to play Gonzalez and Steur together, which is awful to see both because of how many midfield partnerships have already failed, and just how good it feels like it could be.
One or the other
Jaissle seems to have a predetermined idea that it has to be either Nico or Steur, and that playing them together would mean breaking some sort of invisible rule that nobody else can see.
There will be some tactical reasoning behind it, the most plausible of which is that he has a certain set of attributes that he likes in each of his two pivots and that Nico and Steur fit into the same bracket of profile. But that then makes what on earth the second midfield profile he is looking for more than questionable.
If the German wants to continue playing this ‘vertical football’ style, surely the best way to set up would be two technical, progressive midfielders who can break lines, not someone like Joelinton who simply doesn’t have the right tactical profile to work in build up.
Perhaps Jaissle doesn’t believe that either Nico or Steur would be able to give him what he needs in the pressing phase, but that doesn’t track either because the execution levels in that facet have been dismal when more aggressive players have been used.
It’s also interesting to hear Jaissle say things like he did yesterday after the Everton game, where he claimed the incessant long balls strayed far from the game plan… would it be incorrect to suggest that the personnel weren’t able to execute the game plan and his side were forced to go long because there wasn’t enough ball playing ability in midfield to do otherwise? Just a thought.
Could it solve problems?
Without trying to claim it would be the cure to every one of Newcastle’s problems, there is evidence to suggest playing the two together would certainly improve the chance of success.
When Steur came on yesterday he immediately made a difference. His ball retention and accuracy of passing in forward areas allowed the Magpies to sustain attacks much more regularly than they did when he wasn’t on the pitch.
Similarly when Nico was on, the opportunity to use him in build up was there more often than not, but Newcastle either chose not to use him or seemingly weren’t even adhering to Jaissle’s demands.
It’s difficult to feel any other way than that putting their technical profiles and willingness to dictate tempo together wouldn’t only allow Newcastle to create more chances going forward and have more suffocating spells of possession, but also help them off the ball too.
To use this double pivot, there may have to be some small tweaks to the pressing set up, but that shouldn’t be an issue because the current one isn’t working anyway. But perhaps the most potent area Steur and Nico would aid is in transition.
It wouldn’t even necessarily be because they’d provide some unbreakable defensively sound structure, but more so because it would drastically reduce the amount Newcastle lose the ball in stupid areas where they aren’t set.
A lot of the time, the Magpies are being caught in transition because they’ve lost the ball during an attack before the team has been able to get their attacking shape sorted, meaning all of the players in the midst of an attacking transition then have to return to their defensive shape in the blink of an eye.
Keeping the ball safe and actually creating chances at the end of forward thinking moves are the best way to combat that, which Nico and Steur would in theory enable.
Will it ever happen?
It may at some point occur, but it doesn’t feel like it’s on the cards any time soon.
Jaissle was actually asked about why Steur wasn’t getting more minutes prior to the two Everton games, to which he responded that Nico was doing such a good job there that he essentially couldn’t get into the first XI right now…
That suggests that he isn’t even in the mindset of entertaining the two playing together and instead has them pitted against each other in some sort of rigid depth chart, which is slightly worrying given the lack of adaptation we have already seen this season.
Again, it’s worth stressing that it isn’t an absolute certainty that a Nico and Steur double pivot will turn Newcastle into a European place challenging team.
But there are signs that, if Jaissle is willing to even slightly forego his tactical ideology in search of genuine results, there could be a generational midfield partnership just waiting to be given a chance.
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