Newcastle United have had a rough start to the Premier League season as they are one of only four winless teams and are only outside of the relegation zone on goal difference.

This season has already seen them lose their star striker to Liverpool on deadline day, although the British record transfer fee may go some way to soothe that pain, as well as seeing midfielders Joelinton and Sandro Tonali having to go off injured against Liverpool with what have now been revealed to be serious injuries.

Eddie Howe clapping

However, in his last press conference before the international break, Eddie Howe was looking ahead to the rest of the season and the club's return to the Champions League:

“We're just going to try to attack the fixtures in the best way we can. I believe we are more ready than we were last time because there is more experience in the squad and we have been through more together."

With the manager looking forward to European fixtures, the club, and by extension owners PIF, are looking forward to the January transfer window and another striker signing.

Newcastle eye Mateta as third new striker

Newcastle United are still eyeing up yet another striker in the January transfer window as they contemplate a move for Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta. The Magpies are exploring this deal despite already having signed both Brentford’s Yoane Wissa and Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade as Isak replacements in the final days of the transfer window.

Caught Offside have reported that Palace could be willing to let the French striker go for £40 million, and Newcastle, alongside Leeds United and Aston Villa, are the most interested parties and plan to make formal offers in the New Year.

Former Newcastle United and England striker Alan Shearer has previously praised Mateta when he bagged a brace against West Ham in the 2023/24 season:

"A centre-forward masterclass, scoring two terrific goals that any striker would be proud of. What a revelation he's been under Oliver Glasner."

Mateta followed that performance up with another brace, this time against Newcastle in what turned out to be his only goal-scoring performance in nine attempts against the Magpies.

Newcastle's moneyball replacement of Isak

The term "moneyball" gets thrown around a lot in football, but Newcastle, in their handling of the departure of Isak, are enacting the transfer strategy in its truest form.

The initial concept of Moneyball came from Billy Beane’s management of the Oakland Athletics, where, in an off-season where major players departed the club, he tried to replace them not with another superstar but with several players who, aggregated, could reach the same level of output.

Spending the money they received from Liverpool for Isak on Wissa, Woltemade, and now potentially Mateta as well, it seems like they are trying to make up Isak’s goal contributions in the aggregate.

Neither of their new strikers nor Mateta on their own match Isak’s output, but they all still have individually impressive returns. All three of them together would almost certainly make up the deficit that Isak leaves behind, but the difficulty for Howe would be managing the three strikers' desire for game time.