Alexander Isak

[Tsunami]

That Goddard run kept us up, iirc it included the winner at Highbury.

 

Seems every ex big 6 player pundit going thinks their club should just go and sign Isak as do their fans. Mind you, did see a RAWK post suggesting he’s a solid 35M buy as he’s always injured…….

[Fak]

Isak article in The Athletic.

 

Spoiler

Newcastle’s Alexander Isak is the king of the six-yard box

 

Talk to Newcastle’s greatest ever goalscorer Alan Shearer about the scoring of goals and he will bring up the importance of the ‘second six-yard box’ — meaning the space between the actual one and the penalty spot.

 

For him, it’s where strikers should get their chances. No 9s, however, have idiosyncrasies. Current Newcastle centre-forward Alexander Isak’s winner away to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday was his latest in a growing collection of tap-ins from within the actual six-yard box. It made the Sweden international the third Newcastle player to score in seven consecutive Premier League games, after Shearer in 1996-97 and Joe Willock in 2020-21.

 

Isak is shadowing Shearer’s records — his 2024 was the best individual Newcastle goalscoring calendar year (he netted 25 times) since the former England striker’s 2002 (27) — but with very different goals. The 2-1 win at Spurs marked the seventh time this season he has scored from inside the six-yard box… from seven shots. Never mind Alexander the Great, meet Alexander the Perfect.

 

 

Only five men have scored more six-yard box goals in a single Premier League season since 2018-19, and Isak has almost half this season still to play. Newcastle are creating these tap-ins for him from both sides of the pitch, albeit in different ways, due to changed style and personnel.

 

Against Spurs, Jacob Murphy set Isak up with what is becoming a trademark low cross. From an attacking-half regain off a Tottenham throw-in, Anthony Gordon passed early to Isak and the No 9 set it back for Bruno Guimaraes. Newcastle worked it out to Murphy, who was one-v-one versus Djed Spence. He slowed, then dribbled on the outside and drilled across goal. Isak stayed in Radu Dragusin’s blind spot, with the defender’s touch on the cutback only helping it into Isak’s path — tap-in.

 

This scoring streak mirrors and underpins Newcastle’s excellent overall form, with five consecutive league wins (it’s six in all competitions) and Isak scoring the game-deciding goal in three of those. Murphy’s assist for him at home against Aston Villa last month was a carbon-copy of Saturday’s one. The striker strayed offside initially, keeping himself unmarked, as Guimaraes’ through ball slipped Murphy in.

 

This put Isak onside, with Murphy moving into a cutback position, for another back-post tap-in.

 

Newcastle, behind Manchester City, are the second-best Premier League team at generating back-post shots this season.

 

 

Gordon’s position is important too.

 

Isak has been their predominant scorer — his 13 goals account for 38 per cent of Newcastle’s total, up from one-quarter in 2023-24 — though Eddie Howe’s side pack the box with midfielders and wingers, occupying defenders and helping free up the Swede.

 

Since the start of 2022-23, Murphy to Isak (six goals from 19 chances created) is Newcastle’s top Premier League assister-goalscorer combination. There was a slick Murphy backheel, following a mazy dribble, for a two-touch Isak finish away to Ipswich Town in December, which capped a 4-0 win and completed the latter’s hat-trick.

 

When Shearer interviewed him for The Athletic last January, Isak had four six-yard box goals (from 10 shots) in 37 league appearances. “Me and the gaffer look at how I can get, not easy goals, but ones where you’re at the right place at the right time. That’s something I could get more of,” Isak said then. Nine goals from 11 shots in 33 appearances following that interview, means only Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (18) has more six-yard box Premier League goals than Isak (13) since 2022-23.#

 

He still drops in during build-up but now adopts more back-post positions and finds them faster. Isak’s one-touch shot rate is up 15 per cent from last season, and he’s benefitting particularly from Lewis Hall’s development into a first-team regular.

 

The left-back’s crosses and overlaps have brought essential balance. Newcastle were the most one-sided team for crosses in the Premier League in 2023-24, with over 60 per cent from the right and a reliance on Kieran Trippier. Hall has created three goals for Isak.

 

The most recent was Newcastle’s opener away to Manchester United a week ago. Isak came deep, linked play to Guimaraes, and he hit a big switch to the advanced Hall. Gordon rolled infield, occupying right wing-back Noussair Mazraoui.

 

That increased the distance to get back out to Hall, allowing the new England international time and meant Newcastle could flood the box. Isak, attacking behind Harry Maguire, was the most advanced of four forwards. He heads in Hall’s cross, with the hosts’ three centre-backs half-focused on the runners and failing to track him.

 

The effectiveness of the Hall overlap and back-post cross ploy was evident as early as matchday nine, when he set up Isak to tap in an equaliser away to Chelsea in late October.

 

Newcastle’s third in the 4-0 win over Leicester City in mid-December came from this pattern too. They worked a bait-and-switch attack, building up down the right before Joelinton switched play to Gordon. Hall ran hard to get beyond his England colleague.

 

They created a two-v-one on right-back James Justin, and Gordon released Hall. Isak drifted to the back post, with Murphy and Sandro Tonali crashing the box.

 

Hall gets a bit lucky, as his low delivery glances off Conor Coady and into the path of Isak’s path, who heads in — once more Newcastle have three players attacking the cross.

 

Hall made fewer runs beyond the ball on Saturday because, in the words of one loud Newcastle analyst in the press box at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the move for Isak’s goal (on 38 minutes) was the visitors’ “first real bit of composure” in attack. Newcastle had few high-pass moves in settled possession, where overlaps could be made, instead creating chances through Gordon’s counter-attacking directness.

 

Howe’s side now have parallels to 2022-23, when a consistent-in-selection, defensively excellent back five helped secure qualification for the Champions League and had separate five- and six-game winning runs in the league: Nick Pope (goalkeeper), Dan Burn (left-back), Sven Botman and Fabian Schar (centre-backs) and Trippier (right-back).

 

Against Tottenham, Burn and Botman, back from a long injury absence, were the only holdovers from those days as a makeshift centre-back duo. The full-back pairing of Chelsea academy graduates Hall and Tino Livramento has added dynamism, and they are key to new partnerships. Hall’s running supports Gordon, while Livramento and Murphy are defensively and athletically robust.

 

Injuries forced Howe to shuffle his pack, and hit doubly hard as midfielders/forwards had to fulfil secondary positions, such as Gordon to right-winger or Joelinton from No 8 to winger. Newcastle have had six different right-back/right-winger combinations, and five variations down their left.

 

Their current winning run owes much to Howe’s settled starting XIs. Hall and Gordon have been the starting left-sided pair in five of the six straight victories, with Livramento and Murphy lining up down the right in five of the past seven. It’s five wins from seven league games with both combinations starting.

 

“I made a conscious decision to be consistent with selection, to give the best chance to get results,” Howe told reporters post-Tottenham.

 

“We’ve started to win, so I’ve been reluctant to change things and unbalance what’s been working,” he added, praising “good partnerships” and saying that “the balance of the team has been really solid”. Howe has a new recipe for success, and it’s making Isak unstoppable.