“He’s nearly taken my face off” – Nick Pope left wowed by Newcastle teammate in training

Newcastle United goalkeeper Nick Pope has admitted Alexander Isak left him seriously impressed after his very first training session.

Will Newcastle finish in the top four?

It has been a season to remember for the Toon Army who finds their club well in the mix for a spot in next season’s Champions League.

And they will be handed the opportunity to strengthen their push for European football on the weekend when they face fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur.

The Magpies already sit three points ahead of Spurs and hold a game in hand on the north London club ahead of the clash on Sunday.

A lot of Newcastle’s success this season can be credited to their stunning defensive record which has seen no other side concede fewer goals than them (24) this campaign.

However, it is apparent one new arrival, in particular, has impressed behind the scenes with Alexander Isak hitting his stride after a lengthy period out through injury.

Indeed, speaking on Ben Foster’s ‘Fozcast’, Newcastle’s shot-stopper has revealed how impressed the Swedish striker left him after his very first training session on Tyneside:

“First training session, we’d just signed him for good money and we done a shooting session and he’s nearly taken by face off a couple of times.”

“15 minutes of shooting and I was protecting my body.”

Should Isak start every week?

Isak’s arrival at Newcastle will have brought a lot of high expectations given the club broke their record transfer fee for the 23-year-old.

And his time at St. James’ Park did not get off to the best start with the Sweden international suffering two injuries which saw him miss a considerable amount of game time.

However, now he has had time to recover and settle into the side under Eddie Howe, the striker is beginning to repay the £63m spent on him over the summer.

Isak has now returned a seriously impressive eight goals in the Premier League and he has done so over just 906 minutes of action (via Transfermarkt).

To put that into perspective, among the league’s top scorers, only Erling Haaland (70) has bettered Isak’s return of a goal every 113 minutes.

What is encouraging for Newcastle fans is that even in his absence, Callum Wilson has shown he is capable of returning to the starting Xi and scoring goals.

Despite the impressive start to life on Tyneside for the £120k-per-week striker, it should not be a foregone conclusion that the Swede has earned the starting spot in Howe’s XI.

Isak was replaced by Wilson for the trip to West Ham United and the Englishman ran riot in east London as he netted twice against the Hammers (via Transfermarkt).

And perhaps it is a case of these two strikers providing each other with healthy competition behind the scenes to bring the absolute best out of one another.