EDDIE HOWE admits his Newcastle United side have to work out how to make better use of club-record signing Alexander Isak.
Isak scored his second goal since completing a £60m move from Real Sociedad as he converted a second-half spot-kick to earn the Magpies a point from a 1-1 draw with Bournemouth.
However, while the Swede made no mistake from the spot, his impact from open play was negligible as Bournemouth’s defenders successfully marked him out of the game.
Howe said: “He’s (Isak) learning, and not just how the team plays, but also how his team-mates around him play too.
“Again, there were flashes from him today, but I don’t think, as a team, we did well enough around him to get him into goalscoring positions. We didn’t feed him the ball early enough.
“He was a little bit isolated, and we didn’t get him involved enough in the key areas where he wants to be involved.
“Let’s look at the positives – he took his penalty brilliantly and he worked hard for the team. He definitely contributed, but we know we can get him involved a lot more than that.”
With Callum Wilson set to return after the international break, Howe will have to decide whether to play with two central strikers or move Isak to a wider-attacking position.
The 22-year-old played in a number of different attacking roles with Real Sociedad, and Howe regards his versatility in the final third as one of his key strengths.
He said: “Our game plan is not to isolate him at all, he should have a lot of players around him, whether that’s our wide men or our attacking midfield players.
“It’s certainly not a view that we’re playing with one striker – we’re playing with several attacking players. It didn’t really materialize today though, so we’ll look at that and analyse why.
“He is a versatile player, and we obviously moved him briefly to the wide left when Chris (Wood) came on. He can play in a slightly deeper role as well, so there is flexibility with him.”
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