Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle (Image: Peter Byrne)
Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle (Image: Peter Byrne)
MATTHIAS Jaissle says it's too early to know whether Will Osula will miss Newcastle United's re-run against Everton on Monday after the striker suffered an ankle injury as the Magpies crashed out of the Carabao Cup.
Osula was making just his third start of the season at the Hill Dickinson Stadium after recovering from an injury sustained in the opening weekend draw with Liverpool, but Newcastle now face another anxious wait on the striker, who twisted his ankle in the first half on Thursday night.
Osula tried to play on but couldn't and had to replaced at half-time by Yoane Wissa.
"It's too early at the moment," said Jaissle when quizzed on Osula's condition after the 3-1 defeat.
"He was not able to continue. He twisted his ankle when he took the shot."
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Newcastle paid the price for being poor in both boxes against Everton, which Jaissle said is the "story of the season so far".
His side got into promising positions but failed to make the most of them and the first two of Everton's three goals - scored by James Garner and Hayden Hackney - were particularly soft from Newcastle's perspective.
Thierno Barry added a third for Everton before Dan Burn scored a late Newcastle consolation.
Jaissle said: "We are, of course, disappointed with the result. It's also a bit shocking at the moment, because overall the game was not that bad. But it's a bit the story of the season so far, in situations where it really counts, we lack in the clinical approach to solve the situations."
On the goals conceded, Jaissle said: "Just think about the first one, this is again a low-risk zone where we said, clear the ball, nothing happens, and a couple of seconds later you can see the goal out of nothing.
"The second one is also frustrating, because in my point of view we deserve to have a penalty on the other hand, and then you miss that in the transition to defend our own box, which is again for me difficult to accept.
"We have clear rules on how to behave in these matters. And the third one, again a critical ball loss when you're in possession, and the position is punishing you at that level, it's pretty quickly.
"These are the things we need to learn quickly, and on the other hand I think you all saw also the game and the statistics. We had many, many opportunities to score, big chances as well, and also in their box we need to be more clinical to get a different result."
He added: "I think we could have scored for sure more goals today, and when you do the things right, and that's also how we approach it defensive-wise, but also when you have the ball and avoid these critical ball losses, then you don't concede three goals, so this makes the evening a bit shocking when you look at the result and see the whole picture.
"Independent of a young team or a young squad that was a bit naïve and we need to solve that quickly."