Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe and wantaway striker Alexander Isak _(Image: John Walton/PA Wire)_
EDDIE Howe is certain [Newcastle United](http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/football/newcastle) chiefs won't leave him short up-front as the Magpies continue their push to sign a striker and remain hopeful of a peaceful resolution to the Alexander Isak saga.
With Isak unavailable and Will Osula still deemed too inexperienced to lead the line for United, Anthony Gordon will again start up-front against Liverpool on Monday night
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Had he scored against Aston Villa last week, Howe says Gordon's display would have been the "perfect No.9 performance".
But Newcastle's head coach says club bosses know the forward line needs strengthening in the final week of the window, regardless of what happens with Isak. Replacing Callum Wilson has been a priority since early in the summer, but as things stand United do face a possible scenario where they don't manage to sign a striker and Isak either leaves or continues his current strike.
But Howe said: “I don't think the club will allow that situation to happen.
“You certainly can't go through the season with no recognised striker at the football club.
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“That's no disrespect to Will Osula. He's doing and progressing really well but he's got limited experience in the Premier League.
“Although I'm really happy with his career progression, at the moment Alex would be the only striker we have with Premier League history of goals and appearances and starts.
“So we can't leave ourselves in that position.”
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Osula, who is said to be attracting surprise transfer interest from Bayer Leverkusen, didn't make a single Premier League start in his first campaign on Tyneside and only scored one goal.
Howe doesn't think the former Sheffield United striker is ready to play a prominent role for Newcastle yet.
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So it leaves the Magpies again having to rely on Gordon to lead the line, as he did at Villa last week.
“I don't think anyone can fill Alex's boots and Anthony will know that himself," said Howe.
"He's not trying to be Alex, he's got to be himself. I think if he'd scored against Aston Villa, you'd go, 'That's the perfect number nine performance'. I think he had seven shots in the game, he looked a threat, he got a man sent off.
“He was using his qualities, which are his pace and his dribbling skills, so I thought it was a really good performance from him.
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“Yes, of course we were missing the goal from the team's overall performance, but hopefully those will come."
Howe added: "It will be different for Anthony, and of course we're training him there currently at the moment, so he's getting that work as a striker.
“He's beginning to get that rhythm that you need, probably, playing that position, and the understanding and the tactical knowledge that you need because the role is very different but he's an attacker and he's a very good attacker.
“The beauty of Anthony when we signed him was he can play right, left and potentially down the middle, something that he has done before – he's done it for England – so it's not something totally new to him.”
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Newcastle go into the final week of the transfer window with Isak still pushing for a move and Howe still hopeful the striker can be reintegrated into his squad.
Asked whether there's any possibility of the situation being resolved before the deadline, Howe said: “I'm not a fortune-teller, unfortunately.
"I'd love to be, but I've got no way of knowing what will happen in the next few days in terms of trying to get some finality on the situation, so I'm in the same boat as everybody else, really."
And pressed on whether there's a possibility of Isak staying at Newcastle but refusing to play, Howe said: "I can’t read the future, I don’t know what will happen.
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"It goes without saying, if you’re going to select a team to play, those players have to be committed in giving their best performance. I have always believed in those values, in order to produce a team that can win matches. That’s what I’m paid to do.
"All the other stuff around it, things can change. I have had this so many times in my career, a player might not be in a great place one day, and a few days later they are there and ready to play.
"That is the beauty of human-beings, we can all change our emotions and feelings quite quickly."