Jamie O’Hara gets it so wrong with one-word sneer after Newcastle United pull off masterstroke

Where you rank Alexander Isak among the world’s best is subjective, but when it was suggested that the Sweden international was putting himself in the conversation while playing for Newcastle United, pundit Jamie O’Hara dismissively responded: “Exactly.”

O’Hara seemed to downplay the significance of Isak’s goal-scoring feats for Newcastle, implying they weren’t on the same level as those of players like Lautaro Martinez, despite the fact that Isak could potentially thrive with even better service elsewhere.

However, this isn’t a team struggling in the bottom half of the table. Newcastle are just three points off third place, and they are only one game away from another shot at making history at Wembley.

It’s no surprise, then, that Isak has described this period as the ‘best feeling’ of his career. Just last month, he mentioned how special it was to play for a club like Newcastle with such passionate fans.

Newcastle’s challenge now is to keep progressing and meet the growing ambitions of players like Isak, but the platform the club has provided him has been invaluable. Since the start of December, no player in the Premier League has scored more goals than Isak, with 13 to his name. He’s been scoring at a rate of one goal every 65 minutes during this run, and of all players taking at least five shots, he boasts the highest shot conversion rate in the league (42%).

This isn’t just a temporary hot streak either. Despite joining only two-and-a-half years ago and missing several games due to injury, Isak has already scored more Premier League goals for Newcastle than all but Alan Shearer. His goals-per-game ratio (0.66) is even superior to Shearer’s (0.49).

It’s safe to say that the £63m spent on him has been money well spent, although Isak’s impressive goal tally wasn’t always a certainty. He only scored seven goals in his final season at Real Sociedad, which led some potential suitors to look elsewhere. Arsenal signed Gabriel Jesus, Chelsea went for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and a year later, Manchester United paid an initial £64m plus £8m in add-ons for another Scandinavian striker, Rasmus Hojlund.

That serves as a reminder that spending big on a striker doesn’t always guarantee success. Hojlund, for instance, has netted only 12 league goals since joining United, and his performance against Fulham last weekend was so poor that Newcastle legend Shay Given remarked he was “a million miles off it.” Isak, on the other hand, has consistently been on point since Newcastle smashed their transfer record to bring him in.

“As he didn’t score a lot in his last season at Sociedad, some may have doubted him,” said Eddie Howe recently. “But I could always see his exceptional qualities in his play. The only question was whether he could keep scoring, as he had in the season before. Since day one, he’s been a regular scorer for us, and that has undoubtedly boosted his confidence. His general self-belief seems really high at the moment, and that’s something you have to earn through hard work. He’s been outstanding this season, but the challenge for him now is to keep improving.”

That’s a frightening prospect for anyone facing him. If Isak isn’t already world-class, he’s well on his way to becoming one of the game’s elite players after finding the perfect environment at Newcastle.

MSNfootballNews

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