There has been no shortage of discourse surrounding the number 10 at Newcastle United this season. Mainly because, while Matthias Jaissle likes to play with one, the Magpies simply don’t have someone specialised to do that job in their ranks.
Yoane Wissa and Joe Willock have been the two most commonly tasked with plugging the gap so far, but it’s safe to say that neither have exactly made the position their own and, as a result, the conversation has moved into why on earth Jaissle keeps pursuing with that position if it isn’t working.
Well, could the answer to that question be simpler than it seems, because the data and system right now may actually point toward Jaissle not really playing with a number 10 at all.
The 10 position that isn’t
Although the team sheet always claims a number 10 and, in principle, it makes sense for that to be the case, there is an argument that we have all too readily accepted the fact that Jaissle is trying to play a number 10 at all.
If you actually look at the job that the Magpies’ number 10s do, it barely resembles that of someone in behind the striker and helping out the midfield at all. In fact, between Wissa and Willock, both are beginning to show themselves as more of a centre-forward than anything else and, as a wonderful graphic by Gradient sports today illustrated, can be considered ‘pure box threats’.
Essentially, what that means is that they rarely get involved in build up, don’t do anything particularly creative, and instead occupy similar spaces to that of Will Osula, who is the designated striker.
Similarly, out of possession, you may have noticed that the pressing structure involves the number 10 starting alongside the striker, only dropping back into the midfield shape when looking to cut off passing lanes.
So, instead of Jaissle’s system resembling the 4-2-3-1 that we all know it to be, the out of possession shape is actually a 4-4-2, and of course the in possession is often that 3-1-6.
Not only does that explain why it feels like Wissa and Willock are never where they are supposed to be and don’t do much of note to affect the game when we have the ball, but it also provides a bit more reasoning behind the Magpies being exploited in transition and the massive gaps for opposition pivots to get on the ball.
Why it might not change
If this is, in fact, a conscious decision by Jaissle to use his ‘number 10’ in that manner, then the likelihood is we won’t be seeing the changes we have all been crying out for in that area of the pitch.
Newcastle are already linked with proper number 10s ahead of the January window, namely Bilal El Khannouss, who the Magpies have been targeting for the last three seasons if reports are to be believed.
While that has filled the fanbase with initial shoots of optimism, there is a genuine chance that Jaissle just doesn’t want that type of profile and is content with deploying his system in the way he currently is.
Now that is all well and good if he can genuinely find a way to get output out of the players that are being played in that role but, at present, that just isn’t the case regularly enough for it to be sustainable.
And, while we can all sit here and blame those being asked to do the job all we want, we may have to start applying that same logic to the seemingly dysfunctional position they are being asked to play instead.
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