konvaljen

As everyone is speculating, I’ll give it a try as well. Might have a different perspective as I’m not English. I don’t see Isak leaving England anytime soon. He’s already played in Germany and Spain, and clearly his been the most happy in England. Of course he would smash it there now as well. But the style of play in PL suits him great, and he knows that. Why would he want to go to France and spend his best years in a one club league? He’s too smart for that. He has now finally proven himself, and gotten the appriciation here. I have a very hard time seeing him wanting to go back to Spain this summer. Add to that the fact that the PL is by far the most popular league in Sweden, he’s been born and raised to think it’s the place to be. And it is the biggest scene. Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal are the ”biggest” clubs for most Swedish kids as well. Don’t really think Man U is very alluring at this point though. With that said, I actually think he’ll stay. He seems to like it and I think he values that more than some people think on here. Wouldn’t even be surprised to see one of the cup throphies and a top four finish for Newcastle already this season (bar injuries on Tonali or Isak).

Not going to compare Isak with Højlund because I do find that a bit silly. However, Isak was absolutely a proved player already before joining Newcastle, there is no question about that. He didn’t have the same consistency as he has now, and has obviously improved further. But already att Real Sociedad he was a top player. Made me think of when him and Ødegaard shredded Real Madrid in copa del rey 2020. Was fun to rewatch.

Exactly, just highlighting how ridiculous it is to label players as injury prone on short time scales. They both have a pretty average record over time. Not saying either have the absolut highest availability, but it sometimes sounds like Isak is on par with Wilson which is ridiculous. He played 30/38 pl games last season and has played 15/17 this season. EDIT: And you suggested to compare Haaland vs Isak recently. Haaland played 31/38 last season and have, 17/17 this one. Pretty similar to Isak’s stats to be fair.

I find it interesting this myth is so wide spread. Probably lucky for Newcastle as this seems to be a fact against paying a lot of money for him. Since 18/19 Isak has missed 57 games due to injury. Same period Haaland has missed 67. He played 132 games for Real Sociedad, missing only 5 due to injury. Easy to check the injury history on transfermarkt. Still, Isak is considered injury prone, but Haaland isn’t? I guess first impression matters a lot. His early injury at Newcastle has really cemented the view he is injury prone.

Yeah, I mean, his first two season at Real Sociedad he missed 0 games. In total over three seasons he missed 5 games. Load and luck is likely the reason he got a bad injury early when coming to Newcastle. And then, first impressions tend to stick as truths.

I think it’s quite interesting that there is such a strong consensus on Isak being injury prone. I have followed Isak through his career and would say that’s a premature conclusion. Have you looked at his injury record? It’s not worse than Haalands for example. It’s miles from Wilson, which is actually an injury prone player. Of course, if he keeps getting injury’s that prevents him to play for long spells this might be the case. However, the fact that he does not keep repeating the same injury seems promising (compare to Wilson’s recurring hamstring injuries for example).

Man U played a man marking system. Newcastles performance was text book on how to pick their system apart. One big piece there was Isak’s movement pulling out the center halves and creating space in behind. Wingers did similarly at times, reason for Tino to all of the sudden be in acres of space on the left flank. However, it’s not necessarily the best play against a more well organised/better defense as you might want your #9 to “push down” the center halves to create space for your midfield. In any case, Isak had different instructions in the Man U game and it might be hard to say what’s better for the team even if his involvement will be higher when he drops deep.