Alexander Isak

[PauloGeordio]

Just now, The Prophet said:

 

I'm not sure I agree, his career injury record is poor. He's currently out with a pectoral injury for example.

When’s he back?

[TRon]

2 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

I'm not sure I agree, his career injury record is poor. He's currently out with a pectoral injury for example.

 

 

You could put that down to a freak incident, but aye, his career fitness record speaks for itself.

[timeEd32]

I regret bringing this up as I really can't be bothered to do the Wilson thing again. 

 

But if you look back to before the pec injury the majority were still on board with the idea of Wilson as an extremely valuable 2nd/3rd striker. The pec injury sent everyone over the edge, which is silly because it's such a dumb/random injury. It's the fact that it was his fourth injury of the season that made it the last straw, but it's not really fair because his second and third injuries this season were down to completely irresponsible usage.

 

 

Edited April 4 by timeEd32

[Kimbo]

3 minutes ago, timeEd32 said:

I regret bringing this up as I really can't be bothered to do the Wilson thing again. 

 

But if you look back to before the pec injury the majority were still on board with the idea of Wilson as an extremely valuable 2nd/3rd striker. The pec injury sent everyone over the edge, which is silly because it's such a dumb/random injury. It's the fact that it was his fourth injury of the season that made it the last straw, but it's not really fair because his second and third injuries this season were down to completely irresponsible usage.

 

 

 

We’re also in a position where we probably need to sell players due to FFP. Wilson is one we can live without and has value, and this summer is probably the last opportunity to get half decent money for him. He’s toast IMO.

[timeEd32]

I can certainly understand the merits of selling a 32 year old striker who, in a best case scenario, requires a managed workload to be consistently available. And we need to be bringing through a younger player anyway.

 

But I do think it's generally underestimated how difficult it could be to replace his output.

[The Prophet]

52 minutes ago, timeEd32 said:

I regret bringing this up as I really can't be bothered to do the Wilson thing again. 

 

But if you look back to before the pec injury the majority were still on board with the idea of Wilson as an extremely valuable 2nd/3rd striker. The pec injury sent everyone over the edge, which is silly because it's such a dumb/random injury. It's the fact that it was his fourth injury of the season that made it the last straw, but it's not really fair because his second and third injuries this season were down to completely irresponsible usage.

 

 

 

 

To be fair, I was happy to be out second choice striker this season.

 

The reason for that was he's a more than useful striker when he's available and we had more pressing issues to address, meaning the gamble on his fitness was one I was happy to take.

 

If we don't need to take that gamble though, we shouldn't.

 

 

 

Edited April 4 by The Prophet

[PauloGeordio]

Dude is a ninja 🥷 

[konvaljen]

6 hours ago, Menace said:

Its a tough question. Haaland has better finishing/strength and movement in my opinion. Isak is more all rounded than him and has greater dribbiling ability, although also more prone to injury.

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).

[madras]

I'm willing to put the injuries down to an increase in load, it regularly happens and once players build up their strength those type of injuries occur less.

 

(A mates son is a sports physio, Rugby Union) 

[konvaljen]

7 minutes ago, madras said:

I'm willing to put the injuries down to an increase in load, it regularly happens and once players build up their strength those type of injuries occur less.

 

(A mates son is a sports physio, Rugby Union) 

 

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.

 

 

[BonesJones]

8 hours ago, STM said:

I'd actually be interested to hear some outside thoughts on this:

 

Top 5 current PL strikers?

 

Haaland

Isak

?

?

?

 

Definitely don't think Haaland would be what Isak is to us if he was in our team. Doesn't create much for himself, which would be a problem when the balls would be coming from Murphy, Almiron and Longstaff as opposed to De Bruyne and co basically putting it on a plate for him.

 

Isak top of the pile, no bias, none, none whatsoever.

[Geogaddi]

Wouldn't swap Isak for any other striker in the world.

 

 

Edited April 4 by Geogaddi

[PauloGeordio]

Just now, Geogaddi said:

Wouldn't swap Isak for any other striker in the league.

[BonesJones]

Vote him for player of the month, stats look like he should win.

 

https://plpotm.easports.com/

[Ronaldo]

5 hours ago, timeEd32 said:

I regret bringing this up as I really can't be bothered to do the Wilson thing again. 

 

But if you look back to before the pec injury the majority were still on board with the idea of Wilson as an extremely valuable 2nd/3rd striker. The pec injury sent everyone over the edge, which is silly because it's such a dumb/random injury. It's the fact that it was his fourth injury of the season that made it the last straw, but it's not really fair because his second and third injuries this season were down to completely irresponsible usage.

 

 

 

Irresponsible usage? What 16 PL games for a professional athlete with no training 3 days after a playing an hour is irresponsible? The injuries are down to him being unavoidably prone to injury.

[timeEd32]

8 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

Irresponsible usage? What 16 PL games for a professional athlete with no training 3 days after a playing an hour is irresponsible? The injuries are down to him being unavoidably prone to injury.

 

Copying this from another post...

 

He got injured four times this season:

• 3 games in a week (hamstring) - Fair to be annoyed by this; he is fragile
• 6 games / 368 minutes in 2.5 weeks (hamstring) - Not reasonable
• 6 games / 453 minutes in 2.5 weeks (calf) - Even less reasonable
• Torn pec wrestling - freak injury

IMO the responsibility for two of his four injuries this season are on the club. A player with his fitness record, who may not have even been 100% fit at the time, can't be asked to do what he did on two separation occasions.

[Ronaldo]

Not fit for purpose in other words.

[Matt1892]

He is 25/1 to finish the top scorer in the Premier League, currently 3 goals behind Haaland and he has the best goals to minutes ratio of the top 20 highest scorers this season.

 

Considering our run in those odds are decent.

[ExiledGeordie]

8 hours ago, Away Toon said:

Depends on what the limit of the possible points reduction is. 

Righto 😂

[SteV]

8 hours ago, Away Toon said:

Go and drop 500 million in the next transfer window which should be enough to make us top four competitive if spent wisely and if it costs us 10 points so be it. We'd still finish higher up than if we have no money to spend this summer

Doing that wouldn’t just be 10 points though would it? It would probably be relegation or something. And probably rightly so.

[FLUMPO235]

1 hour ago, SteV said:

Doing that wouldn’t just be 10 points though would it? It would probably be relegation or something. And probably rightly so.

Following that the pl relegation and promotion system would be scrapped too. 

[The Prophet]

On building a team around Isak:

 

"Yet, while much of Newcastle’s transfer blueprint is still being finalised, for incomings and outgoings, there is a conviction shared from boardroom to dug-out: they must keep hold of Alexander Isak and continue to build a team around the striker.

 

The tone during internal recruitment discussions has been that, if Newcastle were to seriously consider allowing Isak to leave, then they might as well give up on any medium-term ambitions of competing at the very top."

 

On selling Bruno:

 

"Nobody at Newcastle wants to lose Bruno Guimaraes — who Eddie Howe views as pretty much the perfect profile of No 6 for his philosophy — but there is a begrudging acceptance that the 26-year-old may have outpaced the club’s progress. Should an elite side make a weighty offer, and given the presence of the release clause in Guimaraes’ contract that must be a possibility, then a parting of ways may be reluctantly agreed if it helps finance a wider rebuild."

 

Howe on signing Isak:

 

"Although Howe had been aware of Isak since his days in Sweden’s youth sides, it was when he watched the striker performing in La Liga that he became convinced of his talents. Less than half an hour into a Barcelona match that was shown to him by the club’s recruitment team, Howe is said to have been so taken by Isak’s technical quality and decision-making that he paused the video and declared that Newcastle had to sign the striker if they could.

 

Newcastle are still operating in a similar market space. They admire the same players as Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal but, should any of those clubs rival Newcastle for a signing, for PSR reasons they cannot compete for the fees and wages being demanded.

 

It means Newcastle shift to players in the bracket below, often ones tracked long-term by Champions League sides but who, for varying reasons ranging from injury problems to concerns over their potential adaptation to the Premier League, have not been acquired by them.

 

Isak fitted into that category..."

 

On other striking targets:

 

"Solanke is admired and has Premier League experience, yet he may cost a similar fee to that which Newcastle paid for Isak and is older at 26. The alternative, such as recruiting another overseas import — they have bid for RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko in the past, for example — always brings with it a greater element of risk, especially for a sizeable sum.

 

During a summer in which Newcastle already need to bring in at least one other forward — as well as a goalkeeper, midfielder and winger, plus multiple defenders — trying to replace the seemingly irreplaceable in Isak feels extremely improbable, if not borderline impossible. Isak paid off handsomely, but another deal may not."

 

On a new deal:

 

"Come July, Isak will still have four years remaining on his Newcastle contract and there are already murmurings that attention could soon turn to trying to negotiating an improved deal, rather than permitting an exit."

[HawK]

Toney not being in the top 10 strikers in the league is a mad take, he's quality. What he's done since leaving us has been remarkable, I think some here might have a chip on their shoulder because he didn't make it with us for whatever reason.

 

Would take him over Wilson in a heartbeat. 

 

Not seen a striker with so much presence and authority on the pitch since Drogba.

[Dr.Spaceman]

Ivan Toney is absolutely class and would be a lethal signing that's pretty impossible to make imo. He'll want to go somewhere to be number one or play second fiddle to someone at one of the elite in the CL.

[captainhaircut]

Toney would be a no brainer for me. Not convinced any of the champions league sides fancy him, he has unfinished business here and you could easily play him with Isak. If we started playing Hall regularly, Isak could easily play from the left with Hall going past him to provide width. Gordon from the right.
 

In other games you could play one of Isak or Toney and use Barnes or Gordon from the left. 

Moving Gordon to the right and signing a striker is probably the best way to bolster our attacking resources whilst leaving enough money to work on other areas.