Newcastle’s record without Alexander Isak as Eddie Howe confirms absence vs Aston Villa
Newcastle United look set to be without Alexander Isak for their visit to Aston Villa on Saturday.
The Villans are preparing to welcome the Geordies to Villa Park on 16 August in their opening game of the Premier League season.
In a boost to Unai Emery’s side, Newcastle are set to face Aston Villa without their star striker after strong transfer links to Liverpool.
This looks likely to hand the B6 club the upper hand, despite being set to lose Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle in the coming days.
The question is, how do the Magpies tend to fare without Alexander Isak in their starting 11?
Newcastle have mixed record without Isak
There is no getting away from the fact that the 25-year-old represents easily the Toon’s best player after a stellar year in front of goal.
This has unsurprisingly piqued Liverpool’s interest in Isak, despite a move being yet to go through at this point of the summer.
With that being said, Isak hasn’t featured for Newcastle in pre-season, and won’t be doing so at Villa Park in their first Premier League game of the season.
This comes after Eddie Howe confirmed that the Swede will be absent in the Midlands and won’t make an appearance in the Midlands.
As a result, supporters will be awaiting the team news in B6 to see who the Magpies will start with as their number nine without their star man.
It is fair to say that in the past year, being without Isak hasn’t been a happy hunting ground, losing two and drawing three of their past five in the forward’s absence.
| Wins | 4 |
| Draws | 6 |
| Losses | 3 |
Outside of these five winless games, the ex-Real Sociedad man has only missed an additional eight games, winning four, drawing two and losing one.
- Read more: Aston Villa’s predicted 11 to face Newcastle
Who will start instead of Isak for Newcastle vs Aston Villa?
Looking at the two squads, Emery arguably has the fewest team dilemmas, with Evann Guessand being Aston Villa’s only senior outfield signing this summer.
Whether the Ivory Coast starts or not is a question, but not as big as the one Howe will be facing with his Magpies squad.
The English head coach will likely pick between the unproven William Osula up top or utilise conventional winger Anthony Gordon as a makeshift nine.
Whoever is selected, it will be interesting to see how the Villa backline deals with the chance and whether they can once again get the best of Newcastle at Villa Park.
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