Eddie Howe pressed high. Matthias Jaissle presses high. Look at the team sheet from Bournemouth away, though, and barely a name in the back six was signed to do it — and yet four games into a manager’s reign that started three weeks before kickoff, Newcastle haven’t lost. The mechanics behind it are better watched than paraphrased at second hand. Amar Dedić’s underlap, Malick Thiaw stepping out of defence, Yoane Wissa going missing from his own penalty box on purpose — it’s all in here.

An excellent video by James Lawrence Allcott

What the breakdown doesn’t quite spell out is the more interesting story sitting underneath it. Howe’s press and Jaissle’s press share a word and almost nothing else.

Howe’s version was control dressed up as aggression. Newcastle invited sides onto them, went long to Nick Woltemade’s head, and committed bodies sideways to force possession backwards until the opposition ran out of ideas. The press was there to slow the game down and keep the risk low — chaos as a last resort, not a first instinct.

Jaissle’s press is chaos by design. Lukáš Horníček holding the ball live through a goal kick isn’t caution, it’s bait — an invitation for the opposition to commit numbers forward so Newcastle can play straight through the gap that creates. Wissa dropping into midfield isn’t a forward being wasted, it’s a refusal to leave a defender anything to mark on the last line. Where Howe’s Newcastle wanted the game slow, Jaissle’s wants it live, gambling the first phase of buildup to win space further up the pitch.

Both call it pressing. What’s actually happened is that Jaissle has imported the high-octane transition football that built his reputation at Red Bull Salzburg — though it might be less of a graft than it looks. If Ross Wilson already knew Howe’s exit was coming, with the succession held quiet until Jaissle’s name was secured, then Dedić, Horníček and González were never recruited to play someone else’s football. They were recruited for this. Either way, four unbeaten games are still four unbeaten games — worth watching, not yet worth crowning.

Because the honest answer is nobody knows yet whether it holds. A back six built around four summer arrivals aged 24 and under can bait a Bournemouth press in September, on a ground where the home side wants to play into Newcastle’s hands anyway. Whether the same approach survives a run through sides who won’t oblige — who sit off, protect their box, and dare Newcastle to break them down without the chaos to hide behind — is the actual question.

Same word: press. Different football club. We’re about to find out which one wins.

What do you think of Jaissle-ball after the first 5 games of the new regime? How long will it be before others figure out how to beat it? Join the conversation on X @mytoonarmy #NUFC