The season is deepening and is moving towards a more specific pattern than the early weeks when commenting on the team. For Newcastle United, this is true.
Newcastle successfully launched its 2025/26 campaign, but Eddie Howe’s side was shaken by turbulence beyond the summer transfer window, losing Talisman Alexander Isaac after a long, intermittent battle with Liverpool.
The 26-year-old Isak scored many goals for the Tynesiders. Too many to name. One of them faced Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final. So Isaac’s legacy lives on due to all the negativity and understandable criticism that comes with unnecessary transfer sagas.
But he was already a Newcastle player and Howe knew it was important that proper exchanges were brought.
Well, Joane Wissa is still waiting to make a bow after a knee injury on an international mission following his transfer from Brentford, but Nick Urtemede enjoys a quick start in England and once again impressed in the Champions League on Wednesday evening.
Newcastle spent a lot on Woltemade
Some people find Newcastle over-attractive when welcoming Ultemaids from Stuttgart with a club record £609 million deal.
This is there. To say the least, the summer struggle against Newcastle strikers was well documented. Magpies are one of the most exciting young strikers in the business, and if that makes them “fools,” as some have suggested, even if they are.
And then the 23-year-old German added to the goalley against the Union Sanguilloise of the Champions League, and got a final touch after Sandrotonari’s strike deflected.
The intelligent and Rangi striker, six games in his Newcastle career, has three goals, and he also showed off a skilled tech game to improve as his and Howe’s systems become more comfortable with each other.
He has what he needs to make Isaac, but he has distant memories throughout St. James Park and Newcastle. Woltemade is authentic, but he is young and unsleashed.
Newcastle actually showed that there was another player who could be the next version of the Swedish sense, and that he was doing his best in his resilient performance in Belgium.
Isak for new versions of Howe
The class is permanent. I know this. And while Anthony Gordon ran through the 2024/25 campaign and launched his current campaign in the wrong position, he and everyone involved in Newcastle knew that time and effort would return to England’s international rise to the player who beat his previous year.
Gordon, 24, is considered one of the most talented wingers in the Premier League, enduring his advances in play, making things happen in the final third, and standing up to him as he sets himself apart from his positioning rivals. He has described himself as a “nightmare for whom he is against him.”
However, his return of just six goals in the Premier League last season was simply not enough for his wide caliber advance.
Well, we’re still in the early stages of a new campaign and Gordon hasn’t clicked on gear on the domestic front, but his performance in the Champions League awarded a 9/10 match rating by the Shields Gazette after he’s returned to the best and proved his live wire by changing two penalties.
Anthony Gordon of UCL (25/26) | ||
|---|---|---|
statistics | vs. Barca | vs usg |
I played a few minutes | 90′ | 90′ |
the goal | 1 | 2 |
assist | 0 | 0 |
touch | 28 | 62 |
Shot (on target) | 1 (1) | 3 (2) |
The exact path | 14/16 (88%) | 24/31 (77%) |
Key Pass | 0 | 0 |
dribble | 1/3 | 5/8 |
Tackle | 0 | 1 |
Ground duel | 3/6 | 9/17 |
Data based on sofa score | ||
Journalist Henry Winter said his performance was “quickly and clinical” and that Gordon could capture and maintain its true nature over the coming months, he could rise to Newcastle, similar to Isaac, and provide a major presence in the past few years.
Woltemade is talented and scores goals throughout the season. Wissa will do that too. But Gordon offers something more dynamic and complete when firing with every cylinder, inspiring his teammates while applying his own pressures. Throughout the 2023/24 season, at all competitions, he notched 28 goal involvement.
His contribution to the Harvey Burns’ decisive fourth goal underscores that point. Gordon has the complete package. And there’s all the confidence he’ll help this form back into the Premier League and help Howe’s team get 15th in the Premier League after six games.
But it would simply not be true that Gordon was terrible over the first few weeks. He has endured several heavy moments, and although there is no doubt about it, he recorded six successful duels per game and completed 71% of his dribble.
A little more refined at a key moment, Gordon may finally hit the expected heights, and now that Isaac has left, Newcastle may be needed. After all, he’s also being chased by Liverpool, with the Reds considering paying £100 million for the services of the three Lions stars.
There’s still something to do. Gordon didn’t enjoy a good start to the Premier League season and was sent out against Liverpool, but missed three big opportunities before the goal, lacking the clarity and calm he could create and sustain.
But the class is permanent. I know this. And Gordon too.
The 24-year-old shows he is ready to step into the plate right now, in the Champions League, that Isaac goes and takes responsibility as a Newcastle charm.
Woltemade may be the number nine talented to suit Isak, but Gordon is Newcastle’s master in his A-game.
