Exclusive: Jaissle is now facing his first real test of his managerial mettle at Newcastle United

If Matthias Jaissle was not fully up to speed with the scrutiny that comes with being the manager of Newcastle United then he got a crash course in it over the last week.

After a pretty solid start to the season, Newcastle fell to back-to-back defeats for the first time this term with last Monday's 4-1 defeat to Coventry City compounded by a first home defeat of the campaign in their 1-0 loss to Aston Villa.

Criticism of Jaissle's tactics, Newcastle's lack of cutting edge in the final third and how easily both Frank Lampard and Unai Emery's sides were able to play through them have all followed and it is a level of scrutiny the 38-year-old has not faced before in his fledgling managerial career.

Get Chronicle Premium now for just £1 HERE – exclusive news and features, our NUFC and Academy notebooks, John Gibson's columns plus an ad-lite experience

Jaissle has won trophies in Austria with RB Salzburg and was a back-to-back Asian Champions League winner with Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli. But managing a club like Newcastle United is another level altogether. A passionate, one-club city playing in the biggest league in the world and with ambitious owners and leadership who want to establish themselves among the elite football clubs in the world.

Make sure you never miss the latest Newcastle United news and opinion by making Chronicle Live one of your Google preferred sources.

Even the amount of journalists who follow the club home and away is far in excess of what he was used to in Salzburg and Jeddah but the pressure and the reaction to recent defeats and performances have not caught the German by surprise.

Jaissle went into this job with his eyes wide open to that and sources close to him insist he is continuing to relish the opportunity of managing Newcastle, and is loving living in the city, even in the face of increased criticism and pressure on Tyneside after the last two defeats. This was a big job with big scrutiny that he wanted.

Talk of him being too attached to his 4-2-3-1 system and his 'vertical football' philosophy have been dismissed, too, by those close to him, with the Newcastle head coach consulting his senior pros in the squad about the team's setup and whether there are any reservations internally amid all of the external noise.

The conclusion was that the Newcastle squad remain fully aligned with how Jaissle wants to play, mirroring the public, on the record, defence of Jaissle from senior players Joelinton and Malick Thiaw in recent days, while Lewis Hall, Yoane Wissa and Jacob Ramsey have all publicly been appreciative of Jaissle's approach in the first couple of months of the season.

He is also willing to listen to the advice and counsel of his backroom team Alexander Hauser, Engin Yanova and Florens Koch as he plans a route towards getting Newcastle back to winning ways.

Jaissle does not intend to move away from his 'principles', but he is willing to tweak his formation in the search for success. He did just that when his job twice came under serious pressure in Saudi Arabia.

He believes he has already been flexible in his approach this season with the way his midfield sets up and feels Newcastle's style of play has evolved from playing with a deeper block in their draw with Liverpool and win over Tottenham in the opening two weeks of the season.

"It is depending on how you see the formation," he told Chronicle Live earlier this month. "Often we start out of the 4-2-3-1 so we play with three midfielders. If the six tends to be slightly higher like we had the approach in the last match then you have two eights. So don't make it as fixed as you may think.

"There are slight differences. If he is five metres higher then we are talking about an eight. If he is then maybe again five metres higher we are maybe talking about a 10.

"If you are talking about being five metres higher again you are talking about two strikers so let's try and keep it flexible. We want to bring the players in the best possible position where they can shine but also where they can help the team."

But it is the midfield where solutions need to be found. The departure of Bruno Guimaraes was a huge blow in the summer but one Jaissle expected when he agreed to join Newcastle.

Nico Gonzalez, his replacement, has often looked exposed in the midfield but it is hoped Joelinton's return will make the midfield more compact and more robust. Dan Burn's return to the starting XI, when he is fit enough to do so, is also seen as crucial with his voice at the back, among a young group with a clear leadership void, viewed as a big miss in the formative stages of the season.

Their blunt attack is also an issue with patience clearly needing to be required with summer signing Matias Fernandez-Pardo, while Yoane Wissa's form has dropped off since the international break. Will Osula's return to the side cannot come quickly enough for Jaissle who appreciates his physical qualities, while the right-hand side partnership of Anthony Elanga and Amar Dedic has been a big miss after their respective injuries.

Internally, Newcastle's performance at Leeds was viewed as unacceptable. That view is not the same when they have assessed the defeats to Coventry and Aston Villa.

The Magpies responded to the Leeds defeat by beating Hull City but across a four-game period, that has been the outlier in a worrying run of results and trends. Jaissle shares the frustration of supporters but feels there are things Newcastle can build on from the defeats to Coventry and Villa. The mood is calm inside the training ground and he has always publicly been at pains to reiterate he is expecting a season full of 'ups and downs' with a young squad.

But there is an acceptance that the tide has to turn and quickly and Newcastle fans need to see evidence that the team's deficiencies are being addressed on the training ground.

While the individual errors Jaissle pointed out in each of the last two games obviously contributed to those defeats, hiding behind that won't wash with supporters. Patience with a young group is always easier to accept when the team is picking up points and showing signs of progress along the way.

Any hysterical calls for his job to be under pressure so early into the season, after such a turbulent summer of change in the transfer market and only inheriting the team three weeks before the start of the campaign, were just that but things can unravel pretty quickly.

You need to only look at Jaissle's opposite number ahead of Sunday's trip to Crystal Palace as evidence of that. Pierre Sage arrived at Selhurst Park as one of the hottest properties in European football. The Frenchman steered Lens to Coupe de France glory and an unlikely Ligue 1 title race with PSG last term and was snapped up by the Europa Conference League champions in the summer.

But he has almost been chewed up and spat out by the rigours of the Premier League and he is already under serious pressure after an indifferent start to his reign in South London was capped off by a brutal 5-0 defeat to fierce rivals Brighton on Sunday.

Jaissle will want to avoid a similar fate and the noises within St James' Park remain that the club's decision makers firmly see him as the man to lead Newcastle forward in years to come. But in a week which will see Newcastle travel to take on an out of sorts Eagles side in the Premier League this weekend before a midweek trip to Everton in the Carabao Cup fourth round, with the carrot of a quarter-final place up for grabs, it feels like the next two games could be a real mood setter for where Jaissle's Newcastle are headed.