Johan Manzambi's goal gave Aston Villa a 1-0 win at St James' Park, deepening Newcastle United's woes and raising serious questions over their summer recruitment.
The Swiss international, a summer transfer target for Newcastle, opened the scoring to condemn the Magpies to a second damaging defeat in a week, following Monday's 4-1 loss to Coventry City.
Manzambi poses serious recruitment questions
Newcastle almost signed Manzambi in the summer and at one point were confident the Swiss international would make the move to Tyneside. Instead, he joined Villa and almost inevitably returned to haunt Newcastle as he opened the scoring at St James' Park.
If that felt like a cruel coincidence it should actually begin to ask more serious questions of Newcastle's summer recruitment. Manzambi has hit the ground running and has goal involvements in each of the last four matches. The player Newcastle pivoted to sign after missing out on him was 20-year-old Aladji Bamba who was an unused substitute again and has played just 27 minutes of competitive football this season.
Similarly, Victor Munoz scored for Liverpool today, cutting inside from the right hand side with a clever Cruyff turn before curling the ball beyond Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher in their 2-1 win over the Bees. Newcastle had a deal agreed for the Spanish international who opted to join Liverpool instead at the eleventh hour. In response, United pivoted to sign Bazoumana Toure from Hoffenheim who is yet to make a Premier League start.
The fact Manzambi and Munoz opted to move elsewhere was largely beyond Newcastle's control but it is jarring to see their immediate success when the alternatives the Magpies turned to can't get anywhere near the team.
Much was made of Newcastle's summer rebuild but five of their eight signings can't currently get into the starting XI. This is still last season's team but without Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali or Anthony Gordon. That team finished 12th and the hope was that the summer recruitment would give that team a fresh lease of life to propel them upwards again. If anything, this team looks more tired and weary with each passing game.
Sporting director Ross Wilson was the architect of that summer business. He will be sitting nervously if things do not improve in the coming weeks after two damaging defeats.
MFP switch does not pay off
Much of the pre-match talk was about whether Jaissle would switch formation or personnel in the wake of the defeat to Coventry and the answer became apparent at kick-off. Joelinton came into the side in place of Jacob Murphy and while 4-2-3-1 remained, the positions of the players in it changed significantly.
The Brazilian, captaining the side for the first time this season, partnered Gonzalez in the middle of the park, Joe Willock moved forward into the number 10 role and Yoane Wissa moved up front. That meant Matias Fernandez-Pardo, who has been used exclusively up front since his £51million move, started on the right-wing after much discussion over his best position.
But if it looked to have the desired effect in the opening 10 minutes with Fernandez-Pardo looking bright, he quickly faded back into anonymity and was replaced by Toure on the 55 minute mark. The 20-year-old is young and needs time to grow but he perhaps needs time to come out of the spotlight as he struggles to live up to his £51million price tag.
Jaissle reaction says it all
As Newcastle launched a long, desperate ball towards Dan Burn, put up front in the final stages to try and unsettle the Villa backline, goalkeeper Zion Suzuki came and claimed the ball easily. You felt the last remaining bit of enthusiasm suck out of an already waning crowd and with it Jaissle turned towards the touchline with a despairing grimace.
He must know this week's results and performances have not been good enough and he will now be under no illusions that he has to turn the tide quickly to avoid any further unrest festering in an increasingly disenchanted fanbase. If questions need to be raised of the recruitment, questions also need to be asked about the manager's setup, whether it is getting the best out of his players and how they go about becoming more of a threat going forward and less susceptible defensively.
Newcastle have not kept a home clean sheet under their new manager and managed just one shot on target in the game. Jaissle must find answers to those questions or things could unravel pretty quickly.
Masters must realise effect of his rules
Before kick-off, Premier League CEO Richard Masters strode past the press box as he took in a match between two clubs who have been most affected by the restrictive transfer spending rules his league have enforced. Across the last four seasons, Newcastle and Villa have consistently threatened to disrupt the status quo of the big six yet this summer saw them hit a ceiling where they were forced to sell their best players in order to be able to recruit.
Many have labelled that anti-competitive and Masters surely had to have those thoughts as he watched a Newcastle team that are a shadow of the side who twice qualified for the Champions League in three seasons.
Villa had a dreadful record against Newcastle at St James' Park until recently but are now four games unbeaten against the Magpies and recorded successive wins at St James' Park for the first time since 1958. In a week started with the hope of rising up to fourth in the table, Newcastle are now eleventh and are closer to the relegation zone than they are the Champions League places.
