Howe warns Newcastle of Ekitike risk forward of Liverpool conflict
Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe has put his defenders on purple alert as they put together to come back up towards a person he wished them to line up alongside this season.
Liverpool will arrive at St James’ Park on Monday night time nonetheless hoping to lure the Magpies’ star striker Alexander Isak away from Tyneside earlier than the summer time switch window closes, however having already bought their arms on Hugo Ekitike, who may need changed him.
The 23-year-old Frenchman, who accomplished a £69 million ($92.8m) swap to Anfield from Eintracht Frankfurt final month, was a long-term goal for Newcastle and having missed out on his signature, they must cope with him as they search for a primary win of the brand new Premier League season.
Howe mentioned: “There isn’t any doubt I actually like Hugo and have completed for a variety of years. He is bought actually good qualities and he confirmed that in his first Premier League sport. He had a extremely good debut towards Bournemouth.
“He is bought actually good motion, clever, good within the air, scores objectives, scores off each toes. Our job can be to maintain him quiet. He’s going to be a risk this yr.”
Ekitike has already demonstrated his prowess in English soccer, scoring in each the Neighborhood Protect defeat by Crystal Palace and final weekend’s 4-2 league victory over Bournemouth.
He was one among a sequence of attacking targets recognized by the Magpies this summer time as they seek for a alternative for Callum Wilson and try to guard themselves ought to Isak be bought, and so they have additionally missed out on João Pedro to Chelsea and Benjamin Sesko to Manchester United.
Howe has landed Anthony Elanga, Aaron Ramsdale, Malick Thiaw and Jacob Ramsey and is at the moment pursuing Brentford’s Yoane Wissa and, with seemingly much less likelihood of success, Wolves’ Jorgen Strand Larsen, however he admits he can be glad to see the again of the window.
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He mentioned: “I will be happy when it is right here — happy if we now have what we wish.
“Everytime you undergo a window, there are ups and downs. It appears like there’s been fairly a couple of downs on this one, but additionally fairly a couple of positives as effectively.
“The gamers we have signed are superb gamers who will add quite a bit to the squad, quite a bit by way of the flexibility, athleticism, contemporary power I’ve spoken about beforehand.
“There are massive positives for us. In fact, there’s one massive difficult scenario that is not resolved. From that facet, I am unable to look ahead to the top of the window as a result of we will get again to specializing in the soccer matches.”