Sports Analysis | Premier League | Newcastle United…
A NEW CHAPTER AWAITS…
Ever since Bazoumana Touré joined Newcastle, something hasn’t quite been right.
During the first seven games of his career on Tyneside, he has been given just 96 minutes to show his worth – including a single start that lasted 45 minutes before he was replaced.
Despite the limited minutes during his debut against West Brom in the Carabao Cup, the young Ivorian managed to open his scoring account for Newcastle, offering a brief glimpse at the pace and directness that had earned him a move to England.
So, what exactly is stopping Touré from starting matches?
Well, Baz Touré is a very effective touchline winger, but Jaissle doesn’t need two touchline wingers. He requires someone who can invert and work alongside Wissa, Osula, or Fernandez-Pardo, as a rotating 10 or striker.
THE HARVEY BARNES PROBLEM…
Since the early days of Eddie Howe, Newcastle have preferred to operate with one winger who likes to move into central areas and a second who hugs the touchline and offers quality crossing potential.
When Harvey Barnes – or any other naturally inverted winger – plays within this system, it offers opportunities that a traditional winger cannot provide.
Barnes enjoys occupying central areas, luring the opposition out of position as they are forced to track his runs inside.
As a result, space is left for one of the Magpies’ most creative players, Lewis Hall, to move into areas where he can impact matches the most.
Or, under different circumstances, when the pass to Hall is unavailable, these patterns provide Newcastle’s most clinical finishers with positions where he can show off his most valuable asset.
During his time in the Premier League, Harvey Barnes has made a name for himself as a lethal finisher, especially when given space on the edge of the box.
In the 2025/26 season, Barnes ranked in the top 15% of Premier League players for both shots and shots on target per 90.
And, whilst Touré hasn’t had the chance to share his skillset yet, replacing one of the Geordies most experienced attackers is a huge risk for Jaissle and his largely inexperienced squad.
THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE WRONG JOB?
Before his sale to Barcelona last summer, it was Anthony Gordon on the left-hand side. And one of Anthony Elanga, Jacob Murphy or Barnes on the right.
But the Geordies’ underlapping wizard has left, and they’ve replaced him with an Ivorian Elanga from the Bundesliga.
He is a pacy, left-footed winger who’s best work comes on the touchline as he prefers to beat his man with speed, crossing the ball towards someone else in the box whenever the option presents itself. He isn’t a “main man” who can do it all; he has his strengths in attack, but he also shares several areas that need to be refined for English football.
During his time at Hoffenheim, he only ranked in the 53rd percentile for shots per 90 and fell even lower to the 23rd percentile for shots on target. He’s never been a player who strives to get the last goalscoring action of an attacking move.
ON THE WAY UP…
Whilst his minutes have been minimal, Touré has shown vast improvements in his positioning and is starting to make those extra sessions on the training ground count.
On several occasions, Baz Touré has shown an impressive awareness at identifying his opponent’s weak points, noticing when the backline isn’t set properly, especially in “lower risk” phases of play.
For example, whenever the ball moves into a deep position on the right side for Newcastle, Touré often makes a darting diagonal run in between the opposition’s full-back and centre-half.
The runs are intended to cause panic amongst the defence and open a promising passing option in the process.
These are very similar to movements shown by right-back Amar Dedic during the win against Tottenham.
And, whilst many of these runs haven’t been met with a pass, the intention and repetition of the movement could create problems for teams in weeks to come.
Although he hasn’t been able to show it too often, Baz Touré’s crossing ability is a significant strength that could be useful for Jaissle’s pacy forward line to benefit from.
Newcastle are very successful at involving their wide players in open play and encouraging early crosses into the box. They ranked 3rd in the Premier League for accurate crosses into the box last season.
It was a staple of their game plan during Eddie Howe’s era but has dropped off – falling to 18th position for the same metric – during the early weeks of Matheus Jaissle’s reign.
Similarly to Jacob Murphy on the right-hand side, Touré offers good end product when crossing from the byline.
Before his summer move, his previous club, Hoffenheim, benefited significantly from this, as Touré ranked in the top 7% of wingers for successful crosses per 90 last season.
He often delivers powerful, whipped balls towards the feet of his teammates as they make forward runs in behind.
The Ivorian has managed to deliver several dangerous balls into the box so far this season, most of which have been first-time deliveries from deep areas, and whilst his attacking teammates are yet to capitalise on this talent, Touré has shown that this could be a useful trait that most of his competitors don’t have.
THE TACTICAL DISPUTE…
Eddie Howe may have signed off on the deal for Touré earlier in the summer, but that authorisation was based on Touré’s ability to fit his system, not for the passionate German who actually sat in the dugout come the end of the summer.
Jaissle’s system does have similar principles to Howe’s, which is a major reason for him being given the job, but their methods are almost polar opposites.
Despite the squad’s inability to do so last season, Howe always aimed to ‘control the chaos’ that his side created and focused greatly on nurturing a method, rather than relying purely on their energetic characters.
Jaissle, however, is like a dog with a bone, rocking and rolling until the St James’ Park speakers burst. He is constantly trying to push his team to be as risky as possible without pushing the self-destruct button.
It’s chaotic, but it’s very calculated and requires an extremely specific archetype as a result.
And, unfortunately for Touré, despite showing promising signs from the bench, that’s what’s holding his minutes back. Harvey Barnes has a decorated career as a Premier League footballer , producing at least 12 goal involvements in six of his last seven seasons.
And, of course, the benefits of a partnership that he has already got with Lewis Hall down that left-hand side.
“With Baz, it’s really clear. He’s a young lad. You see the steps in training, he’s really committed. But Harvey (Barnes) is performing at a high level, so sometimes you get less playing time.“
Matheus Jaissle (Before 4-1 loss to Leeds Utd)
A Change in the Offing?
But, even with that relationship and his experience, the right side of the pitch is not untouchable. And, with an Anthony Elanga-sized hole left as he continues to recover from a recent hamstring issue, now is the perfect time to remove the training wheels and let Touré explode.
His rapid acceleration and low centre of gravity should have Jaissle’s mouth foaming, but Murphy continues to stand firmly in his way. Matheus Jaissle clearly rates the 31-year-old and his experience within England’s top flight. But his technical quality continues to drag the side down.
Last season, Murphy ranked as one of the worst passers in the league, averaging just a 73.3% pass success rate, ranking him amongst the bottom 12% of wingers. And, only 19.2% of his crosses were successful – ranking him in the 46th percentile of crossers – compared to Touré, who ranked in the 91st percentile with a 33.6% success rate.
Jacob Murphy has always been a solid squad option, but Newcastle need more than hard work right now.
TIME FOR AN UPDATE…
Bazoumana Touré could offer that difference, so why doesn’t Jaissle think so?
For Jaissle, managing a game of football isn’t based on just one constant variable. It’s simple to assume, “Bazoumana Touré offers quality in the final third, so should be starting”, but football isn’t just played in one fluid attacking motion.
There are transitional phases, pressing structures, and resting defensive shapes that are just as pivotal for securing success upon the final whistle.
And, that defensive discipline and those physical attributes are where Touré’s influence falters. He is competing with an Englishman – Jacob Murphy – who has spent years developing his game as a high-pressing forward.
So far this season, Murphy has averaged 4.95 recoveries per 90, ranking him amongst some of the best wingers in the league on that metric.
He showed this effectively during the first half of Newcastle’s 2-1 win against Hull before the international break.
Murphy’s alert defensive acumen allowed him to recover a loose ball off of Hull’s Sorba Thomas inside the penalty area. Thomas accidentally tripped him up, and Murphy won a penalty through his defensive work.
Baz Touré hasn’t shown that intelligence yet, and it’s no surprise given the work that’s often required during the early days of a Premier League career.
Whilst this could be for a multitude of reasons, this is not a new thing for the youngster. Touré has consistently shown patterns of sloppy defensive work during the early years of his career. Across his time in Germany, he ranked in the 43rd percentile for defensive contributions among wingers – producing an average of 2.4 per 90 – almost half that of his biggest competitor, Jacob Murphy.
These trends have slipped again this season as Touré has a tendency to react too late in defensive situations. He is too focused on watching where the ball is, rather than the threats surrounding him. As a result, he often loses track of his marker during transitional moments.
This was shown during the latter stages of their match against Hull, as Ryan Giles – Touré’s main positional threat – was often given too much space by the Ivorian, which allowed him to deliver a few dangerous balls into the box.
Newcastle already make it hard enough for themselves and have faced the most shots on their goal in the entire league during the first five games. So, the defence is certainly something that the boss will have a close eye on.
WHAT’S THE HOLD UP?
On top of training the defensive side of his game, Touré has struggled with maintaining possession with his back to goal – an instruction that Jaissle likes his wingers to execute.
Last season, Touré won 5.88 duels per 90, almost double that of Jacob Murphy at 3.11. However, those stats are from a different league, with different profiles.
And, whilst his ability in the air is remarkably impressive for a player who’s 5ft9, he has often struggled to win those duels in a much more physically demanding league.
Instead, Touré is better when using his acceleration to chase onto a forward ball, facing his opponent directly before using his tidy control to blitz past him and progress further down the touchline.
And, ranking in the top 15% of dribblers last season with 1.86 successful dribbles per 90, he has already shown that the talent exists.
But Jaissle needs a player who can do more than one trick, so Touré must find a way to use his size to his advantage and let his small build and power edge him to victory in those tougher physical battles.
THE FINAL TOUCHES…
Once he can master moments like those, Hull showed that Touré’s chance could be near. He replaced Mathias Fernandez-Pardo for the final 15 minutes of the game, and, whilst it wasn’t a perfect performance from a defensive standpoint, he showed major improvements.
Touré floated between his natural position on the wing and rotated seamlessly with Yoane Wissa, as the pair took turns shifting between a striker and attacking midfielder role for the closing stages.
He used his pace well when forced to lead the press and forced several players into mistakes, which gave his teammates a much-needed opportunity to progress higher up the pitch.
ON THE ROAD TO GLORY
Touré’s a young 20-year-old who has just moved to a completely new country.
It will take time for him to mould his game to the tactical nuance that’s required for Jaissle’s system. A young lad with a one-way ticket from Hoffenheim who has already made a mark against all the odds in a new system, with teammates he’s never played alongside, and different tactics to contend with.
Bazoumana Touré is a special talent, and nothing about his early days as a Newcastle player has changed that. He is clearly a gifted attacker who has a skillset that will be effective against English opposition.
And once those techniques are refined and his minutes begin to build, then it’s only a matter of time before those history books gain a chapter or two…
