Isak's transformation from shy teen to ruthless striker

In-form Swede’s graph of progression is almost textbook’

- RICHARD EDWARDS

"You don't get crystal balls in football - but you didn't need one to see that he was a player that was going right to the top," says Adrie Koster, the former Willem II boss who worked with Alexander Isak during his loan spell in the Eredivisie in 2019.

Koster knows a thing or two about nurturing precocious talent. The former Netherlands winger was the manager at Ajax when Luis Suarez arrived at the club and watched on as the Uruguayan maverick used his stay in Holland as a springboard for moves to Liverpool and Barcelona.

As he says, you don’t have to be a mystic to see that Newcastle’s Swedish goal machine is on a similar trajectory.

Last Tuesday night, on a bitterly cold night in north London, Isak warmed to his task in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, scoring his 15th goal of the season as Eddie Howe’s side romped to a 2-0 win – their first away win against Arsenal since 2010.

When Newcastle’s Premier League season resumes against Wolves this evening, Isak will go in search of a goal to extend an astonishing seven-match top-flight scoring streak. Jamie Vardy’s record currently stands at 11. It would be no surprise if the 25year-old challenged it in the coming weeks.

“Vardy beat that record the year we won the Premier League but I remember Henrik Larsson saying that once you’re on a roll you get the feeling that everything you hit is going to go in,” says Paul Balsom, head of performance innovation at Leicester during their title-winning season in 2015-16 and a member of Sweden’s backroom staff for 26 years.

“Henrik would say that he would pull the trigger at times that he might not have previously when he was on that kind of streak. You’re not scared to miss and you start thinking that everything you hit is going to go in.