Newcastle United news: Matthias Jaissle has warned his side won’t be at their ‘peak’ for the Premier League opener against Liverpool.
It’s just over a week until Newcastle United’s Premier League season gets underway against Liverpool at St James’ Park.
The Magpies have endured a disruptive pre-season which has seen key players, and Eddie Howe, leave the club. While Matthias Jaissle has been appointed as Howe’s successor, there are still question marks over the replacements for the likes of Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes, Anthony Gordon and Kieran Trippier in the squad.
Newcastle have made five signings already this summer, four of which are under the age of 21.
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Speaking earlier this week, Jaissle recognised the challenge but admitted it ‘doesn’t make sense’ to focus on the negatives before a competitive ball has even been kicked.
“It's a challenge, a big challenge, always when there's a transition period, but it's not time to complain,” he said. “It doesn't make sense to see the negative things, we want to see the chance in that situation and that's our approach from day one now.
“We're here to do our best job, we want to support the players, the current squad. There will be adjustments definitely to see in the upcoming days, weeks, but for now it's only focused on the daily work, on the work we can influence and that's all that matters now.”
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Newcastle are hoping to make progress on the transfer front with less than three weeks of the window remaining. They have two friendly matches left against Bayer Leverkusen and Strasbourg before they open the season against Liverpool the following weekend.
But with key positions still to strengthen and players still returning to full fitness, Jaissle brought some reality to his positivity when assessing the situation following Wednesday night’s 3-1 defeat against Everton.
“For sure, we cannot be on the peak [against Liverpool],” he admitted. “This is clear. We're just working now a couple of days together and Liverpool is already next week, so we use every day.
“That's the only thing we can control in the best possible way to make progress. And the same will be then also on the transfer market scene. Hopefully, that there's also progress.”