Ever since Newcastle United signed Alexander Isak, fans have been wondering if there’s a way Eddie Howe could play Isak and Callum Wilson alongside each other.
As the summer transfer window barreled to a close in August, Newcastle made their move for Swedish international striker, Alexander Isak, bringing him in from Real Sociedad for a club record £63million.
Ever since the day he was officially unveiled by the club, fans have been speculating if Howe would ever play two up front with Isak and Callum Wilson playing together. So far we’ve only seen it attempted once in the dying embers of the 1-0 win against Fulham at St James’ Park when Wilson teed up Isak for the winner.
Fans are itching to see Isak and Wilson together
If anything that just made fans want to see them together more, and in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday night, Howe admitted there’s scope for that to happen: “I think it all depends on the game, the situation and what players you have.
“As I’ve said many times, Callum and Alex can play together as well, so it’s not just a case of one or the other.
“I do see a time and a place where they’ll be on the pitch at the same time.”
Both forwards have found the net in their recent outings for the Magpies with Isak notching his seventh goal in 10 games against West Ham and Wilson crossing the 10 goals for the season mark with his brace against the Hammers.
Saturday isn’t the time to try it out
It’s difficult to pick which one to start against Brentford on Saturday afternoon as they both offer different things as players. That’s why they could work so well together as they’re completely different styles of forward.
I don’t think Saturday is the right time for Howe to experiment with the two up front, though. Not because I don’t think it would be effective, I think it absolutely would. It’s more a case of the lack of striking options if either one of them picked up an injury. It’s just too risky.
Howe also hinted that he likes the idea of being able to give one of them an hour then swap them around to bring on fresh legs and a different impetus: : “I would never say to a player ‘You’re going to play 60 minutes, you’re a 60-minute player’. I don’t think that’s healthy for their brains.
“But certainly the way the game is going, the way that we want to play, I don’t think that’s a bad thing for me in a game, to make that change at that time.
“I think it gives the player coming on to the pitch long enough to get into the game.”
It has certainly been working in the last few games, so why change it now?
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