Last night's four one victory at Elland Road wasn't lucky, Daniel Farke's side dominated with Leeds imposing exactly the game we wanted to play. High tempo, an aggressive press from the first whistle, and a physical edge that Newcastle simply had no answer for. By the time Calvert-Lewin was rising above their centre halves for the second, the game had all but stopped being a contest. Scroll through the r/NUFC Reddit the morning after and their own supporters are saying the same thing in far starker terms.
Men against boys was the phrase that kept coming up, and it wasn't us saying it. One Newcastle fan called it a proper wake up call, admitting their side had been "bullied all over the park" and that Wout Steur in particular got "a rude awakening" that he'll hopefully learn from. Another put it even more bluntly, describing the whole night as "men against boys stuff" and saying there was no way back once the game got away from them. Newcastle have had some good results so far this season, despite creating little in the way of chances, but Farke's team dictated terms last night against a side that couldn't live with our physicality.
The other theme dominating their reaction is what Jaissle calls "vertical football", and it isn't landing well with the harshest of critics asking what the actual difference is between vertical football and Big Sam era route one. Long ball football dressed up in a new name, with no width and few chances created. Several pointed to the same specific problem, a midfield two of Miley and Steur without the range or physicality that Bruno Guimaraes and Tonali used to provide, meaning the whole shape collapses into a back-foot 4-4-2 the moment it's pressed. Others zeroed in on Botman and Thiaw, with more than one comment questioning whether that pairing is anywhere near European level, and calling for Schar and Burn to reclaim their places once fit.
None of this will sound unfamiliar to Leeds fans, and there's a reason for that. Matthias Jaissle, like Jesse Marsch before him, is a Red Bull man through and through, shaped by the Leipzig and Salzburg pressing school that treats verticality and rapid transitions as gospel. Marsch brought that same doctrine to Elland Road, talked a good game about pressing triggers and playing forward at pace, and then discovered week after week that perhaps it doesn't work in the Premier League where you are no longer the biggest, fittest, strongest fish in the pond. Newcastle fans are fearing the same thing now after being beaten up by Leeds, a Red Bull philosophy being imposed on a squad that isn't built for it yet, in a league it's just not suited to.
To be fair to Newcastle, plenty of their supporters are pushing back on the panic too. Several pointed out this wasn't the full squad Jaissle wants to work with, with Burn, Joelinton, Osula and Elanga all missing, and argued that a summer of major squad turnover was always going to produce a transitional season. But caveats aside, the tone from Tyneside on the night was one of genuine alarm rather than a shrug and a "we'll be fine."
We've seen it before as Leeds fans, a manager that talks a good game but plays a style of football you can see is just not working on the pitch. But right now we don't care about Newcastle United, Jesse Marsch or Matthias Jaissle, because Daniel Farke had his Leeds side purring last night. A dominant display when no other home team had won in the Premier League and up to third in the table with Leeds fans very much looking to the future, not the past.