Newcastle United fans won’t want to dwell on Alexander Isak’s notable summer exit at all now.
The Magpies’ former fan favourite definitely left on sour terms in the summer when he forced through a mighty £125m move to Arne Slot’s Reds, though, having bagged a weighty 62 goals for the Tyneside giants across 109 outings.
Luckily, Eddie Howe’s men have recovered strongly from what had the potential to be an earth-shuddering setback, as Nick Woltemade came in through the door to instantly replace the superstar Swede for a whopping £69m.
He has filled the Isak-shaped hole well, too, with a blistering six strikes already in his back pocket for the Premier League titans from just 12 games. In stark contrast, Newcastle’s ex-star man has only one meagre effort next to his name at Anfield.
Worryingly, though, the “first class” Woltemade – as Eddie Howe has recently labelled him – has been a rare bright spark at St James’ Park this season, despite only just entering the English game.
On the contrary, many of Newcastle’s stalwarts who have been in and around the Magpies’ first team long before the 6-foot-6 menace’s arrival have been below-par this campaign, with all of Newcastle’s mounting issues clear for all to see, as they collapsed to a 3-1 defeat away at lowly West Ham United last time out.
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Newcastle must wish they could only play in the Champions League at the moment, with the Magpies picking up a lethal eight goals across two wins so far in that competition, as they re-enter the illustrious stage on Wednesday night against Athletic Club.
From a far larger pool of games back in the Premier League, ten to be exact, Howe and Co only have a slim three wins next to their name, with the 3-1 defeat picked up at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon sparking St James’ Park royalty Alan Shearer into labelling the loss on the road as a “rotten” performance.
It was far from Newcastle at their very best, that’s for sure, with Woltemade even letting the side down with just 14 touches of the ball, as the Magpies only had an early Jacob Murphy effort to shout about in the attacking positions.
Defensively, the travelling Toon looked all over the place, too, with more question marks popping up at the close of the loss at the London Stadium as to how Dan Burn remains in Howe’s starting XI.
Howe has had to count on his ageing number 33 to be a stand-in in the left-back spot for the majority of the season so far, with one Newcastle-based content creator even stating that persisting with the 33-year-old here is the “stuff of nightmares.”
The Blyth-born defender certainly had an afternoon to forget in East London to back up these comments, with zero tackles and only two duels being won, as Howe now prays he has Lewis Hall back to full fitness shortly to bring this long-standing experiment to a close.
Yoanne Wissa
13
Tino Livramento
7
Lewis Hall
6
Injuries have been a real pain this season so far for the Premier League underperformers, with Newcastle’s lack of depth in defence – due to Hall being in and out of the treatment room – meaning they have had to rely solely on Burn in a makeshift left-back position.
Moreover, their frustrations in this department have, no doubt, only been strengthened by the fact that summer arrival Yoanne Wissa has not been able to line up for one single Magpies game so far this season, after joining for a bumper £55m from Brentford.
With 45 Premier League goals next to his name for the Bees, he would have been a breath of fresh air for Newcastle fans to latch on to, in a similar fashion to Woltemade.
Instead, with Wissa sidelined and many more issues coming to the forefront, the feel around St James’ Park is arguably stale, with Joelinton also now showing visible signs of rust.
Yet, he continues to be selected week in, week out – like Burn – despite zero goals or assists coming his way this campaign so far.
He isn’t the only first-team star that is crumbling right now, however.
£100m Newcastle star now looks "all over the place"
Newcastle turned a few heads this summer when gaining £125m after Isak left the building.
But, this trend of selling one of their prized assets for around the £100m mark could amazingly continue on, if rumours surrounding Anthony Gordon’s long-term future at St James’ Park were anything to read into the same window Isak departed.
Indeed, the Merseyside-born winger was being tipped to relocate to Anfield, much like his former teammate, for an equally ludicrous fee, with statistician Statman Dave even noting that Gordon can be “unplayable” on his day, like the lethal Swede, as well.
The England international loved linking up with Isak when he was still situated on Tyneside, with eight of the Scandinavian’s aforementioned 62-goal tally coming directly from a Gordon assist.
On top of that, the former Everton youngster turned Newcastle first-teamer also has 26 goals in total for Howe’s men, with nine of those efforts coming just last season to pique the Reds’ clear interest.
But, away from some flashy performances in the Champions League so far this season, with Jose Mourinho even waxing lyrical about the 24-year-old when his Benfica side came to St James’ Park, Gordon has cut a disinterested presence in Newcastle’s ongoing demise in the Premier League.
The hot-and-cold number ten is now deep in a 19-game patch in the top-flight, where he has picked up zero goals and assists.
Worryingly for Newcastle, this isn’t the first instance where Gordon has mentally checked out of proceedings, having left behind boyhood employers Everton mid-season – in controversial circumstances – to jump ship to the Toon in early 2023.
While that was a major plus at the time, as Newcastle didn’t have to play the long game, it should have been a slight warning sign for what the future could hold, with the attacker even being hauled off at the half-time mark against West Ham, after an “awful” 45-minute spell, in the words of journalist Luke Edwards.
Further said to be looking “all over the place” at the moment by journalist Adam Clery, it could be that Gordon is just hurting from his synergy with Isak going to the wayside, as a possible £100m move to Anfield in January – to link back up with his deadly former teammate – now looking way off the cards.
In the same breath as criticising Newcastle’s recent downfall, though, Shearer has also offered some pearls of wisdom to the likes of Gordon, with this big-game mentality and the constant need to entertain, now having to be replaced by a “back to basics” approach to get off the mark in the league, sooner rather than later.
If Gordon can get back to his best in the bread and butter of the league, Newcastle will surely rise in the league standings, with an unsatisfactory 13th spot at the time of writing, just not cutting the mustard.
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