Jamie Carragher has not been shy about Newcastle United this season, and after Monday night’s 1-0 defeat to Everton his verdict was blunter than ever: the team he is watching is “flat and a little bit boring”, and he fears “a long, tough season”.
It is a pointed description given who is in the dugout. Matthias Jaissle arrived in August from the Red Bull system, a background Carragher associates with front-footed, aggressive football. “That was one thing I didn’t think I’d ever be describing Jaissle’s Newcastle as,” he said on Sky Sports.
What Carragher saw
Thierno Barry’s second-half goal gave Everton their first away win of the Premier League season, and Newcastle were booed at half-time and full-time. Carragher’s complaint was not only the result but the lack of energy around it. “You think of the system he’s come from, the Red Bull model, how they like to play,” he said. “At times, those types of teams and managers can leave themselves open at the back, but it’s front-footed, it’s aggressive, it’s getting the crowd involved, and we’ve just never seen any of that at all tonight. I’m a little bit flummoxed watching it.”
The numbers give his view weight. Newcastle are 13th, four points above the bottom three, with three wins from nine games and four defeats in their last five matches in all competitions. No Premier League side has lost more home games in 2026 than Newcastle’s seven, and they have now gone 14 home league games without a clean sheet, the longest such run in the club’s league history. Newcastle did not manage a shot on target until the 85th minute against Everton.
An early warning that has been building
Carragher said the concern pre-dates this week. Newcastle’s early results under Jaissle, including draws against Liverpool and Bournemouth and a win at Tottenham, were fine on the face of it: the results “in the main have been okay”, he said, but “there’s always been a worry about the performances and their underlying numbers, even early on”. He was also clear that Monday mattered more to Newcastle than their Carabao Cup exit at Everton a few days earlier: “I think it is going to be a tough season for them.”
It is a theme he has returned to before. Earlier this season he said Newcastle had been “beaten up” again; this time the criticism is less about physicality and more about identity.
The manager’s own assessment
Jaissle did not argue much. He told Sky Sports: “We were not brave enough in possession. Too many long balls.” He said the team did not use its double pivot well, admitted there is “not too much confidence”, and added: “After a performance like that, I can understand that [fans booing]. That’s a reality and I am responsible for that.”
That candour supports Carragher’s reading, but it also points to the counter-argument. Jaissle describes a side in transition, with a lot of young players, and his argument is that confidence has to be rebuilt as a unit. Carragher himself acknowledged the young squad and a young manager, and said “the crowd are expecting a lot more”. The question for Newcastle is whether patience will last.
What comes next
Saturday’s trip to Fulham looks difficult. Carragher watched them against Villa at the weekend and called them “really good”, noting that Newcastle also have some testing games coming. For a manager who was hired to bring intensity to St James’ Park, the next few weeks will show whether the “flat and boring” label is a passing verdict or the start of something harder to shake.
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