Jamie Carragher believes Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle must consider changing his formation to give his young side more chance of competing in the Premier League. The former Liverpool defender was speaking on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football after Newcastle's 4-1 defeat at Coventry City.
United were beaten 4-1 at the CBS Arena on Monday night, the second successive away game they have lost by that scoreline, following the defeat to Leeds United last month. Newcastle dominated the ball for much of the game but failed to convert chances, aside from Sven Botman's second-half strike, and defensive errors allowed Frank Lampard's Sky Blues to claim a famous win.
Carragher's warning on formation and physicality
Carragher felt United had been 'beaten up' in both away defeats and warned Jaissle must change his set-up or risk further heavy losses. The German favours a 4-2-3-1 formation, but too often that has become 4-4-2 in matches, with the two-man central midfield often swamped.
Newcastle previously had a feared midfield trio of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton, but Bruno and Tonali were sold over the summer and the club turned to younger replacements. Nico Gonzalez has struggled to impose himself after impressing on his debut at Tottenham, while Lewis Miley has been forced into playing right-back and Sean Steur was not used at Coventry.
Joelinton's return and the need for change
Joelinton's return from the bench at Coventry will help Newcastle's physicality, but Carragher has warned it is something Jaissle must address quickly. He said: "We've consistently said this season that they've had a good start results-wise, but we've kept making the point that the underlying numbers have not been great, when you look at their xG, how many shots they concede as well."
"And you just think on the back of two away games now where they've lost 8-2 on aggregate. He's gone almost to a 4-4-2 with two sort of strikers up there, and I know Wissa drops in a little bit deeper, but when you think of Newcastle at their best under Eddie Howe, it was more of a 4-3-3 team."
"Now, every manager has their own way of doing things, but when you think of the lack of physicality in that team, talking about Joelinton coming off the bench as well, I think it would be important he gets back in that team. But maybe it might be a case where you maybe have to leave one of the strikers out and you throw an extra body in midfield, because it is a young team and it isn't as physically powerful as a lot of teams in this Premier League, and in these last two away games, they've been beaten up twice. And that's going to need to stop very quickly."
