Newcastle United star Alexander Isak is fit to lead the line against West Ham on Monday night – with Eddie Howe playing down any suggestions that he will look to ‘protect’ players in his threadbare squad ahead of the Carabao Cup final.
The truth is, Newcastle have millions on the line if they fail to qualify for the Champions League and while a trophy lift would mean everything at St James’ Park, Howe is not prioritising any particular competition. Having been dumped out of the FA Cup to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday, the prospects of success have been reduced in the past week for the Magpies.
Howe, speaking at his Press conference ahead of the trip to West Ham, Howe said: “Alex is fine. Sunday, when he came off, he was feeling a bit fatigued towards the end of the game, with some tightness in his body. So we withdrew him. He has trained every day and he’s good.
“As I said, if he is fit, he will play because that is the best way to get him in the best physical condition for future games. Footballers are finely tuned athletes and when they are ready to play they have to play.
“You have to give them that opportunity. Fingers crossed, Alex will be fine. I understand the intense sort of speculation and spotlight on him but the best thing we can do is just relax and let him play his football.”
Inevitably, there has been talk of Howe trying to wrap players in cotton wool ahead of Wembley. But Howe simply said: “Resting players does not come into my head. The focus is West Ham.
“It is an important game, our Premier League form is hugely important and we need to get back on track, we need to build momentum on winning and the best chance we have to win any cup is to go into that game (the final) feeling as good as we can.
“We will pick our strongest team, resting players doesn’t come into my head and if you think resting a player for two weeks before a huge game is good for them, that is not the case, they need regular football to give them the best chance of being fit and also to perform.”
That suggests that the team which starts at West Ham will be close to the team which lines up at Wembley. After losing Lewis Hall and Sven Botman this week, Newcastle must obviously tread carefully with selection and Howe admitted: “It’s not been the best of weeks. It has been one of those weeks that challenges you in the job that I am in.
“You need to put it in perspective – we have a strong squad and a strong team. We’re going to miss the players that we are going to lose, but it is always someone else’s opportunity.”
West Ham come into the game having beaten Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium recently and then picking up three points at home to relegation-haunted Leicester City. Howe said: “It’s a huge game for us, and we can’t get distracted and lose the focus on the Premier League. All the talk will be on the game ahead.
“I see determination from the players to try to do well. West Ham is always a tough place to go to, and Graham Potter is a difficult manager to prepare teams against, so we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
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