Everton's Rout of Newcastle Says More About Jaissle's Rebuild Than Moyes' Progress
Everton beat Newcastle 3-1 at Murrayfield on Wednesday, and the temptation is to read it as proof David Moyes has built something dangerous. That's the wrong debate. The more interesting question is what this Newcastle side actually is right now, because on this evidence, nobody at St James' Park knows yet either.
Thierno Barry opened the scoring in the 27th minute, latching onto a reverse pass from Harrison Armstrong after Lewis Hall's tackle wasn't quite enough to stop the counter. Iliman Ndiaye added a penalty before the break, and second-half substitute Tyrique George made it three with a finish off his right foot, cutting in from the left. Harvey Barnes pulled one back late on, meeting a Jacob Murphy cross, but by then Newcastle had already made ten changes at half-time and the shape of the contest had gone with them.
That's the context that matters. This was Matthias Jaissle's second match in charge after Eddie Howe's departure, and his first look at Premier League opposition. He's rebuilding a squad that sold Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães over the summer, three players who defined how Newcastle played under Howe. Sky Sports described Newcastle as a side "still searching for their identity," and that's the honest read. Wholesale changes at the break didn't help their rhythm, but the bigger issue is that nobody yet knows what Jaissle's Newcastle is supposed to look like.
Everton, by contrast, looked like a team with a plan already installed. Moyes has now won three of six pre-season games, and what stood out at Murrayfield wasn't just the scoreline but the players doing the scoring, Barry leading the line with purpose, George impacting the game off the bench. There's a real question about whether that form travels into the season opener against Crystal Palace on August 22. Pre-season wins have fooled better sides than this one.
Newcastle didn't lose their identity in one bad friendly. They lost three of the players who built it, and Jaissle has eleven days to find a new one before the Premier League starts asking harder questions than Murrayfield did.
