Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown suggested on Tuesday night that Newcastle United are missing Alexander Isak after they sold him to Liverpool in the summer, and he may actually have a point.
Whoa whoa whoa! Put the torches and pitchforks down and hear me out here. I haven’t been dropped on my head. I, like so many others, would be happy to never see Isak darken the doors of St James’ Park again.
However, you’d have to be really blinded by rage not to see that we have missed him this season, and by him, I just mean a player of his style.
As much as we love Nick Woltemade, and we do believe he’s going to be the answer going forward, the fact is, we’ve not had enough time to work out how to successfully deploy him. We have 10 players on the field who are still looking for that run in behind the defence, which is simply not how Woltemade plays.
Martin Keown has spotted the big issue with Newcastle’s attack
Martin Keown acknowledged that on Tuesday night on TNT Sports, after the defeat to Marseille, he suggested that Newcastle are suffering from not having Isak in the side.
“No Isak. I know he’s not really doing it for Liverpool but he looks a huge loss for Newcastle.
“Gordon looked sharp in that first half, but you need a specialist centre-forward with pace. It’s not quite there. It doesn’t fit them with their game type.
“Everything is about pace and counterattacking. Lots of big games for Newcastle [to come].”
Yoane Wissa could potentially solve a lot of problems for Newcastle this season
Newcastle bought Yoane Wissa to be the ready-made replacement for Isak, but of course, he’s been injured since we bought him, so we’ve not had him to call upon.
Despite his return date constantly being pushed back, his return is getting closer. I mean, it has to be, and hopefully we’ll see a huge difference in our goal-scoring fortunes when he’s back.
Ultimately, though, we hope that Eddie Howe is able to devise a way to fully utilise Nick Woltemade to the best of his abilities, even if that means playing him alongside Wissa.