{"id":10444,"date":"2024-12-31T15:43:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T15:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=10444"},"modified":"2024-12-31T15:43:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T15:43:25","slug":"10444-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=10444","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak (25) probably does not want the year to end after setting the Premier League alight in December with a scintillating burst of form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Swede, who joined Newcastle<\/a> for a club record 63 million pounds ($78.95 million) in 2022, scored his eighth goal of the month in Monday’s 2-0 win at Manchester United<\/a> – a result that means Eddie Howe<\/a>‘s side end the year fifth in the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isak<\/a>, 25, also has two assists in December when Newcastle won five successive league games to put themselves right in the hunt for a top-four finish and a return to the Champions League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I evaluate his game on a daily basis and I just try to keep pushing him for more,”<\/strong> Howe said of the former Real Sociedad<\/a> striker who took a while to get up to speed this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“His game is in a good place. But my job is to find areas in which he can improve. He has all the ingredients in there.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isak’s form has put him on the wish list of some of Europe’s biggest clubs and keeping hold of him could well hinge on Newcastle qualifying for next season’s Champions League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is contracted until 2028 and media reports say Newcastle have slapped a 100 million pounds plus price tag on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville said on Monday: “I think he is the best striker at this moment in time in the country, purely because I watch (Manchester City<\/a>‘s) Erling Haaland<\/a> a lot who is a world-class striker but his overall play is nowhere near Isak’s level at this moment in time.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Howe, asked after the win at Old Trafford whether Isak was nearing his best, said: “He is getting there. His goal was really pleasing, he was where he needs to be in the middle of the six-yard box. He affects games in the way only he can.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newcastle are the form team in the Premier League and are only three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea<\/a>, who have suddenly hit a rough patch with two consecutive defeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howe is only looking as far as the next game, though – a trip to unpredictable Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are going through a spell of tricky away games, Tottenham and then Arsenal<\/a>, two massive games, but we will approach them as we did this one,” <\/strong>he told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak (25) probably does not want the year to end after setting the Premier League alight in December with a scintillating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10447,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10444\/revisions\/10447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}