Alexander Isak now shares what Eddie Howe did in Newcastle dressing room at half-time yesterday

It would be fair to say Newcastle United took a while to get going against West Ham on Sunday.

The energy spent on such a sensational win over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night looked to have drained Eddie Howe’s team somewhat in the opening stages in east London.

Newcastle, however, managed to come back into the game after the break and even take the lead thanks to Alexander Isak’s quick-fire brace.

While they were eventually pegged back to share the spoils, the improvement after the interval was notable.

Now, Isak has shared what Howe did at half-time to raise the levels of performance.

Alexander Isak shares what Eddie Howe did at half-time on Sunday

The Sweden striker admitted the team were some way off their usual levels for the start of the game against the Hammers.

Indeed, it seems as if Howe let them know that at half-time at the London Stadium.

“We were very off in the first half and the manager let us know that as well, which I think was correct,” he told Match of the Day 2.

“But the reaction second half was very good and we were gutted we didn’t get the three points but we are happy with the reaction.”

By no means a disaster

To have emerged from a meeting with a very strong West Ham team all while dealing with injury problems is barely a disaster, particularly given the start Newcastle made.

 

In an ideal world, of course, they would have held out but to have raised their game during the contest was really impressive only days after the draining win over PSG.

 

Isak was key to that, proving clinical when he needed to be, albeit he did have an admittedly difficult chance to score a hat-trick.

 

Newcastle certainly head into this international break in better shape than they did last month’s.