AMAR DEDIC is expected to start for Newcastle despite his bow and arrows controversy — but Matthias Jaissle desperately needs his strikers to start hitting the target.
The heat on is threatening to reach boiling point with fed-up Geordies booing their team off for the second-straight home game after .
A nightmare run of four defeats in five has raised serious questions over the 38-year-old German’s ability to lead ’s transformation.
With plenty of issues to sort on the pitch, the last thing that Jaissle needed in the run-up to the trip to Fulham was Bosnian full-back Dedic sparking a huge in a Northumberland village on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old, Jaissle’s first signing on Tyneside from Benfica having previously played under him at RB Salzburg, was eventually intercepted by six cop cars, some understood to be armed response units, seven miles away after a concerned member of the public reported them.
Dedic, who along with a friend was understood to have fired arrows while in the countryside, had his weapon seized on Wednesday though police said they “understood they were for recreational use and there was no threat to the public”.
While enquiries remain ongoing into the incident, Sun Sport understands the star has not been disciplined by the club and he was due to travel to London with his team-mates tonight.
But Jaissle has a host of other problems all over the pitch. A dodgy goalkeeper behind a leaky defence and a non-existent midfield. But it is up front where his men look the most toothless.
It took the Mags until the 85th minute to register a shot on target against the Toffees.
Belgian striker Matias Fernandez-Pardo, a £51m summer signing from Lille, has blanked in his six outings in Black and White. He still has some way to go to rival £55m Yoane Wissa as arguably Newcastle’s biggest transfer flop of modern times. And William Osula has spent most of his time chasing aimless long balls and scored just once this term.
Quizzed on how he plans to cure the chronic goal drought, Jaissle insisted his strikers should not need a map to find the back of the net.
He said: “They know it by themselves. I don’t even need to mention that a striker needs to be always aware of every situation. When there’s anything just coming in the penalty area or the box, I need to be there as a striker. I need to have that nose, that feeling that something is dropping for a second ball or there is a cross possible that I am there.
“They know it, they work hard on that and they work hard on their finishes. We can be for sure more efficient and hopefully in the future we see that progress.”
While some fans have already turned on Jaissle, his backers point to the fact that he only took charge of a squad stripped of its best assets a fortnight before the Premier League season kicked off.
Experienced stars Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali, Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes were replaced by a host of young talents, who could all crumble under the pressure of the angry Toon crowd.
Jaissle added: “It’s not easy, and the players need to get used to it, the players who are not used to it before. So, of course, we have some experienced players; Dan Burn, he already had ups and downs in his career, so he’s easier in handling those situations.
“But for a young lad, it’s also new to learn how to overcome this period. But we are here to support,and that’s not only myself, that’s my whole staff, that’s all employees here in the club working with the players, and that’s our job now.”
