Newcastle defeated Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park with Matthias Jaissle going ‘back to basics’.
The Magpies desperately needed this win to bounce back from two straight defeats. This run included a 1-4 thrashing at the hands of Coventry City – despite the game being much more even than the final score suggests.
And they got it at the expense of the struggling Eagles, who are winless over their last four, featuring three losses. Pierre Sage is on the hot seat and yesterday’s result adds further pressure to the Frenchman.
Matthias Jaissle, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief. And he was also very much responsible for the result, especially the clean sheet.
How did Matthias Jaissle influence Newcastle’s clean sheet against Crystal Palace?
Old centre-back partnership
Jaissle made a lot of changes to his starting XI at Selhurst Park. Most notably going back to the Dan Burn-Fabian Schar partnership in the heart of defence. As well as William Osula leading the line for the first time since opening weekend.
Both Burn and Schar are 34 years old and have been at St. James’ Park for 5+ years. The former just under five, while the former arrived in 2018.
In many ways, Sven Botman (26, signed in 2022) and Malick Thiaw (25, signed in 2025) represented a renovation at the back. Younger, more athletic and more comfortable in possession to initiate build-ups and stay attached to opposing forwards.
But it was the veteran duo that earned Newcastle their second clean sheet of the new league season – in what was their first game playing alongside each other as centre-backs since November 2025 (1-2 loss to Marseille in the Champions League).
And they did it the ‘old-fashioned’ way.
Back to basics
Botman (9.0, 26th out of 37) and Thiaw (9.7, 23rd out of 37) are both in the bottom half of Premier League centre-backs in terms of line-breaking passes per90 (min. 500 minutes played).
And yet, it’s considerably more than what Burn (3) and Schar (4) managed against Palace. These are two of the three lowest tallies of any Newcastle centre-back that played the full 90 minutes in a league game this term.
The duo also combined to complete just three of their 13 attempted long passes in the match. Not to mention the Englishman had 85% passing accuracy and the Swiss 78%, none of which are considered high for centre-backs in the modern game.
So neither actually contributed to the Magpies creating anything dangerous. So much so that the build-up in Osula’s opener went from goalkeeper Lukas Hornicek straight to left-back Lewis Hall, skipping the centre-backs completely.
They also struggled defending in space, which is expected for both of them. This was Newcastle’s game with the joint-most shots conceded in counter-attacking situations in the Premier League this season (2), but both of them happened in the first 12 minutes of play.
From then on, Palace only managed one counter-attack – in the 98th minute. Burn and Schar started off shaky but found their feet in Jaissle’s system.
The most important was the lack of mistakes – a rare sight for Newcastle fans in recent weeks. Botman leads all PL players in errors leading to shots (5), with Thiaw not too far behind (2). The Dutchman, in fact, has made at least one shot-ending mistake in four of his seven matches so far. Burn and Schar had zero at Selhurst Park.
Schar (10) and Burn (7) also led Newcastle to their second game with the most clearances this season (45), accounting for over half of the headed ones (17 – five for Burn, four for Schar). Though it was more of a collective effort.
They might not be the best centre-back pairing for the Magpies going forward. But with both Botman and Thiaw playing well below the level they can get to, it’s still good news for the fans that they can still handle 90 minutes of solid overall defending. It may not be easy on the eyes, but can get the job done.