Two assists on his second appearance: Amar Dedic’s Newcastle start could hardly have gone better. The right-back, who arrived from The Athletic reports cost around £30m from Benfica, set up Bazoumana Toure’s opener and Harvey Barnes’s winner as Newcastle came from behind to beat West Brom 3-2 in the second round of the Carabao Cup.
Only signed last week, Dedic has already slotted into Matthias Jaissle’s system with a fluency that tells you exactly why the head coach wanted him. The pair worked together at RB Salzburg, and that shared footballing language is already translating onto the pitch without the luxury of an extended pre-season together.
Amar Dedic Newcastle assists underline Jaissle’s system in action
Jaissle’s preference is direct and aggressive: get the ball into dangerous areas fast, with runners arriving at pace. Dedic’s athleticism makes him ideal for that approach. Both of his assists came from forward runs that ended with the right cross, at the right moment, to the right man. For the opener he found Toure; for the winner he picked out Barnes, who came off the bench to grab two goals and take the headlines.
Barnes will rightly get the plaudits, but Dedic’s role in manufacturing both moments was clear. Jaissle said as much post-match, describing his display as ‘amazing’. That is strong praise given how little time the pair have had together on the training ground at Newcastle.
When Tino Livramento returns to full fitness, he will find a serious competition for that right-back berth waiting for him. Dedic has raised the bar quickly.
A summer overhaul built around youth and Jaissle’s blueprint
Dedic’s impact sits inside a much bigger picture. Newcastle have completely reshaped their squad this summer, and every one of their signings fits a clear age profile. With all seven summer arrivals aged 24 or under, the club have made a deliberate break from the experienced-heavy group that preceded them. Nico Gonzalez’s £50m arrival from Manchester City completed that set, and Jaissle described the club’s transfer direction as ‘brave’ in his post-match press conference.
Among those arrivals are three outfield players under the age of 22, including Bazoumana Touré, according to Goal. Jaissle has been candid with supporters that success will not happen overnight given the scale of the upheaval. That honesty, combined with early signs like Dedic’s performance, gives the rebuild a credible foundation.
It is a different kind of Newcastle squad to the one fans have grown used to. Experienced players have departed. The club need new leaders to emerge, and after 29-year-old Yoane Wissa put in a player-of-the-match display in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool, 28-year-old Barnes stepped up against West Brom. Leadership, it seems, is spreading through the group.
The transfer business has not stopped at outfield. BBC Sport reported that Newcastle’s new goalkeeper Hornicek arrived from Braga for £25.7m, less than a week before the West Brom match. That is another young addition to a squad being constructed around Jaissle’s specific demands rather than reputation or experience alone.
Jaissle himself made his name at RB Salzburg winning back-to-back Austrian Bundesliga titles and an Austrian Cup with a young squad. His track record of developing players is precisely why Newcastle’s decision-makers brought him in. Dedic is, in many ways, the ideal test case: someone who already knows what Jaissle wants, arriving to show his teammates what it looks like in practice.
That is the most telling aspect of the West Brom win. If Newcastle’s other summer signings can reach Dedic’s level of understanding for Jaissle’s system, and do it at similar speed, the early results could look very different from the cautious timeline the head coach has publicly set. The blueprint is on the pitch. The next question is how quickly the rest of the squad can follow it.
Newcastle’s next fixture will test whether the performance against West Brom was a signal or a one-off. On this evidence, it looks very much like a signal. Visit Newcastle United for the latest club news and fixture information.