Matthias Jaissle walks off the pitch following Newcastle United's 4-1 defeat to Coventry City (Image: Nick Potts/PA Wire)
Matthias Jaissle walks off the pitch following Newcastle United's 4-1 defeat to Coventry City (Image: Nick Potts/PA Wire)
MATTHIAS JAISSLE claimed to have seen “signs of improvement” in his Newcastle United side despite their 4-1 defeat at Coventry City.
The Magpies suffered a 4-1 loss for the second away game in a row as Coventry claimed their first home victory since winning promotion from the Championship last season.
Newcastle recorded a higher xG than their opponents (1.84 to Coventry’s 1.43) and recorded 19 shots as opposed to the Sky Blues’ nine. However, they failed to make the most of their opportunities, with their goal coming courtesy of a superb long-range strike from centre-half Sven Botman.
At the other end, they made a series of defensive errors that contributed to Coventry’s goals, but Jaissle did not want to be too downbeat despite his side’s latest away-day hammering.
“If you lose 4-1, you can say it is not good enough,” said the Newcastle boss, whose side remain in the bottom half of the table. “But I think it was a tough story.
“Throughout the whole match, you need to be realistic and analyse the situations and the game in detail. I think there were elements where we can see improvement, but on the other hand, there were also elements where, in both boxes, we need to step up and improve.
“In the end, these margins are deciding games. We had many, many chances, which was an improvement, but in the opposition box, we need to be sharper and more clinical in the approach to score goals.”
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Newcastle also suffered a 4-1 defeat to Leeds United in the most recent away game prior to the international break.
Jaissle was critical of his players’ performance at Elland Road, acknowledging that they failed to win sufficient duels as they crashed to their first defeat of the season.
The German felt today’s display was much better than the one that was produced against Leeds, even though it ended in exactly the same outcome.
“I need to see the statistics, but I had the feeling that it’s not something we can compare with the Leeds match,” said Jaissle. “I think we were at least better than that.
“The goals we conceded were really down to mistakes, it was a different story. We were better, especially after the first ten minutes, than we were in the [Leeds] game.
“We dominated the game, but again, we conceded the goals too easily. That is something we can control and that we definitely need to improve. And in the opposition box, it is the same. When you create so many chances, which was an improvement, you need to finish them and get the reward out of it.”