Alexander Isak missed Newcastle United’s 2-0 defeat at Premier League leaders Liverpool.Eddie Howe has delivered an update on Alexander Isak after the Newcastle United star missed the 2-0 defeat at Liverpool.
The 25-year-old travelled to Anfield with his teammates but wasn’t named in the matchday squad due to a groin problem he felt on Tuesday.In Isak’s absence, Callum Wilson made his first Premier League start of the campaign and missed an excellent chance to make it 1-1. Dominik Szoboszlai gave the Premier League leaders the lead12 minutes in before Alexis Mac Allister added a second around the hour-mark. Providing an update on Isak, Howe said: “It goes without saying how important he is to us and I think you could see that today, I thought we missed him. It was a late decision around midday today that he just didn’t feel right in his groin, so we didn’t want to take the risk, we’ve got too many big games to come. “But that meant a tactical reshuffle, so we changed things around. We brought Callum in, played a different way and I thought our system looked good, I thought our shape looked good, I had no issues with that. “No issues with the effort levels, the commitment was there, which was much improved from Manchester City, just our quality was missing.” The two clubs meet again in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley in just 17 days’ time, and Howe expects to have Isak available.The Sweden international has scored 21 goals for the Magpies this campaign, with his brace against Nottingham Forest last Sunday taking his total to 50 Premier League goals since joining from Real Sociedad for a club record £63million in August 2022.“We certainly hope so, we don’t envisage it being a big problem for him,” said Howe.
“I think we’ll analyse this game and it will help us for the final, but I’m sure Liverpool will be saying the same thing as well. They’re a high-quality team, I think they’ve got good players in all areas and you can see why they’re doing so well.”
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