Will Alexander Isak play for Newcastle against Aston Villa? FPL GW1 dilemma resolved
Will Alexander Isak play for Newcastle this season - and should he be in your Fantasy Premier League team anyway?
The Alexander Isak transfer saga has dominated headlines for the past few weeks, but while Liverpool and Newcastle await a final resolution it’s also a matter of concern for Fantasy Premier League players with a new season just around the corner.
Players have until Friday evening to decide upon their final squad for the 2025/26 FPL season, but should Isak – last year’s highest-scoring striker – be in it? We look at whether Isak will play this weekend and whether it’s worth having him in your squad regardless.
Will Alexander Isak play for Newcastle against Aston Villa?
The short answer is no. When speaking during his pre-match press conference, Eddie Howe chose his words carefully to avoid outright confirmation of Isak’s absence prior to Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off against Aston Villa, but the implications were abundantly clear.
Isak has been refusing to play or train since Newcastle rejected an opening offer from Liverpool which was reported to be worth £110m, and it sounds like nothing has changed.
“Isak's situation has been clear for a while and that will continue to be the case,” Howe told the assembled media. “I want him to play, to train, but details of our conversations remain private."
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In short, Howe is trying to persuade Isak to play but has been unable to do so, and unless something significant changes between now and Saturday morning, the Swede will not be involved at St. James’ Park.
It’s still anyone’s guess as to whether Isak will get his wish and move to Anfield before the transfer window closes on 1 September, nor is there any clear timeline in place for negotiations. He could miss one game or several, depending on how everything pans out.
Should you sign Isak for your FPL team anyway?
Again – the short answer is no, but the reason is a little more complicated than simply that he won’t play for a week or two.
Isak was the highest-scoring forward in the game last season with an impressive 211 points, and as such has been slapped with a £10.5m price tag. The issue is that such a fee makes him far more expensive than other players which he only marginally outscored.
Isak was worth 11 points more than Chris Wood but costs £3.0m more, 18 points more than Jarrod Bowen but costs £2.5m more, and so on. Once he starts playing, Isak may well outscore his rivals once more, but he would have to considerably up his output to out-point cheaper forwards by enough to make the return on investment worth it.
It’s possible that he does indeed score far more if he moves to Liverpool and finds himself surrounded by world-class attacking support such as Mohamed Salah and Florian Wirtz, but until that’s a proven and clear fact, players look very likely to get more bang for their buck from players like Wood and Bowen, and will very probably be far more than 11 points better off if they spend that £3.0m or so on upgrades in other positions.
As it stands, 12.2% of players have ignored the noise and picked Isak for their starting side, and that’s a lot of players making a mistake. If he becomes a clear-cut 30-goal striker at Liverpool in a few weeks’ time, he’s worth signing, but the bar he has to clear to live up to his transfer fee is simply too high, especially when he will miss one match at the bare minimum.