Why Alexander Isak was dropped from Newcastle United’s starting XI v Manchester United

Eddie Howe has explained his decision to start Callum Wilson over Alexander Isak during Sunday’s Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester United.

Isak, the Magpies’ club-record signing had started back-to-back matches against Bournemouth and Liverpool, but was taken out of the starting XI at Wembley.

“Really tough one,” Howe admitted. “Two immensely talented players but I had to pick one. Callum on his last start scored and played very well against West Ham, so that swayed my decision.”

With Newcastle 2-0 down after goals from Casemiro and Marcus Rashford, the Sweden international was introduced for Sean Longstaff at half-time.

“Alex today when he came on was electric,” said Howe. I thought he did really well. Him and Callum played well together in the second-half.

“Sean was just a tactical substitution switch. Two-nil down, cup final, I didn’t think we had a minute to waste to chase the game. That’s why we brought Alex on.”

The United head coach continued: “As I sit here now, I’ve got no regrets about how we tried to set the team up and our intent to the game, we wanted to be really brave as we have been all season and try and take the match to Manchester United. It was a strange game because it was low on goalmouth action for periods of it but I felt we were really competitive.

“I can’t fault the player’s efforts or what they’ve given me in this game but it’s decided on big moments. The free-kick, we’ve not defended it well enough. That’s probably the moments we look at with regret.”