Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle (Image: Andy Commins)
Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle (Image: Andy Commins)
MATTHIAS Jaissle is confident his new-look Newcastle team is heading in the right direction as he prepares to launch his Premier League career.
The 38-year-old German has presided over a difficult pre-season campaign as a squad shorn of big names Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes and Kieran Trippier has been rebuilt with young potential, a process which remains ongoing as Sunday’s big kick-off against Liverpool looms.
Jaissle will take to the home dug-out at St James’ Park for the first time knowing significant challenges lie ahead, but relishing the challenge of taking up the reins relinquished by Eddie Howe earlier his summer.
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He said: “First of all, I’m really grateful. I consider it a huge privilege to be coach of Newcastle United at this stage of my career already.
“But I also feel that’s a huge responsibility – and I’m aware of that – so what I can do is every day giving my best to try to improve, to try to support the lads in the way we’re doing it right now.
“I’m really, really happy with the commitment the lads show on the training ground and we’re going totally in the right direction, so I’m happy and I’m really grateful.”
Jaissle was appointed as Howe’s successor on August 5 after the 48-year-old decided his time had come to step down after almost five years in charge.
With his squad in a state of flux, the former RB Salzburg and Al-Ahli head coach has rather been thrown in at the deep end, but is far from daunted by the task ahead.
Asked how his first few weeks in the job have gone, Jaissle replied: “Amazing. Challenging, a lot of work.
“I consider the training ground at the moment as my home, which is normal and fine at this stage. I can say only good things.”
He added with a smile: “The biggest challenge probably is what I have mentioned already: the dialect of some of your colleagues and maybe the driving on the left side. But all these things are easy to handle in the future. I’m fine.”
Jaissle’s first competitive fixture is sure to be an emotional one as Newcastle and Liverpool come together to celebrate the life of Kevin Keegan, a man who meant so much to both clubs, ahead of kick-off before resuming a rivalry which has sparked some classic encounters in the Premier League era.
He said: “I can’t wait to be there in the stadium, to coach the team in front of our fans. Of course, now it is a challenging period, like I’ve described now already a couple of times.
“We want to use now the remaining days in the best possible way, get our ideas into the players’ heads and then hopefully we can also deliver that already on a higher level.”
The Magpies will be without full-back Tino Livramento and midfielder Joelinton, but are likely to hand a debut to new signing Amar Dedic.