Inside Eddie Howe's Newcastle rebuild: Why Toon players are training after dark, their new dressing room anthem and how boss intends to replace the lost Alexander Isak goals, writes CRAIG HOPE

Long after 52,000 had filed out of St James’ Park on Wednesday night, Sandro Tonali smashed a ball beyond John Ruddy and into the roof of a portable net facing the Gallowgate End. Here was a late-night snapshot of Newcastle United’s obsessive hunt for goals.

Using the penalty area as their pitch and with the goal on the edge of the box, an intense attack-versus-defence session was led by coach Graeme Jones. It was 10.30pm. For a Champions League team who still need work if they are to compete as an elite European outfit - at least from a goalscoring perspective - not a minute can be wasted. The schedule means that drills after darkness are a necessary means of shining a light on avenues to improvement.

Tonali was not alone. Club-record signing Nick Woltemade, Kieran Trippier, Tino Livramento and Harvey Barnes were all involved. But the sight of Tonali being encouraged to shoot - and score - was a pertinent one. 

The Italian midfielder is Newcastle’s best footballer and, right now, they need their best players to do more than boss their own domain. That is why Tonali was rifling balls underneath the crossbar.

In the absence of Alexander Isak and with his replacements, Woltemade and Yoane Wissa, either in need of time to adapt or currently injured, Eddie Howe has issued a call to arms. Or rather, feet and heads. In a post-Isak world, his team have to share the load.

From five Premier League games, Newcastle have averaged just 2.6 shots on target, down from 4.58 last season. Only Aston Villa have fewer than their three goals and a worse shots-to-xG ratio, which relates to the quality of chances created. Even still, Howe’s side have under-performed their xG by two goals, meaning that the openings they are working are going to waste. The area for improvement is as obvious as it was inevitable. They have played well yet left behind points.

Howe talks about a need to ‘evolve’, but ‘reinvent’ feels more accurate. After nearly four years of building a team that went from 19th to the Champions League and won a domestic trophy for the first time in 70 years, he watched the roof be ripped off amid the stormiest of summers. 

They have lost their magnetic north. It is no surprise, then, that their attacking play has at times lacked direction this season.

Woltemade is not Isak, either in terms of current level of ability or, of greater relevance, style. This is the reason Howe is having to rethink how his team, so alluringly defined by front-foot intensity with potency at its tip, now operates.

The idea that Woltemade, the £69m Germany forward, has been bought as a No 10 is scoffed at by those on the inside. They do not play with a No 10, for starters. Even if the 23-year-old’s skillset lends itself to that role, Newcastle will work tirelessly to make him an effective No 9. 

The problem at present is finding the time to put that plan into practice on the training ground. Hence the floodlit drills, which Howe and his staff call ‘grabbing the moments’.

On pre-season tour in Seoul this summer, when Howe was facing up to life without Isak, I saw the work being done to unearth goals from elsewhere. With the head coach leading one exercise, midfielders Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton were repeatedly encouraged to break through on goal. On Wednesday, in the 4-1 win over Bradford City in the Carabao Cup, Joelinton scored twice and Guimaraes assisted two.

Howe smiled on Friday when I put it to him that he must have been encouraged by Guimaraes also missing a couple of chances. He was not so impressed last Sunday at Bournemouth, following a third goalless draw on the road, when I queried whether Woltemade was a ‘chance-getting’ striker, given he had scored from his only effort in three matches. Howe put it back on others to create more.

That is why this feels more like a rebuild than a rework. Because even though the foundations of a team with a defence and midfield among the best in the division remain the same, there has to be a shift in functionality on the back of such a seismic change up top. 

It is like swapping the engine of a Formula One car - the chassis is identical, but every gear change and corner feels new.

So it is on Joelinton to do what he was originally bought to do, as that £40m striker six years ago. It is on Guimaraes to turn missed chances into goals. And it is on Tonali to hit the back of the net at the Gallowgate End. At least, that is, the one on the goal-line as opposed to the training frame.

Then there are the four wingers, the position of goals-and-assists gain in the modern game. Between Anthony Gordon, Harvey Barnes, Jacob Murphy and Anthony Elanga there is one assist and no goals in the league so far. 

Elanga, at £55m from Nottingham Forest, was meant to be the upgrade on Murphy, but the latter replaced the former in the XI after just two games. It is also Murphy’s cross for Woltemade’s debut goal that stands as that sole assist.    

Howe, though, does not think it fair to judge his wingers by numbers alone. Asked by Daily Mail Sport about Elanga on Friday, he said: ‘It’s harsh to say he’s got no goals or assists. Statistically, that is right. But you look at the chances he has created and sometimes it’s not on him that players he has served haven’t scored.

‘If Nick scores Jacob’s cross with the header, he gets the assist. Vice-versa, if someone misses an opportunity, that assist doesn’t happen. Anthony has done his job several times but it hasn’t ended up in a goal.

‘He’s looked a threat. He has that raw pace and power that is so difficult to defend against. But I think he can get better, and we can help him do that as we continue to work with him.’

Woltemade needs work. Elanga needs work. Wissa needs to be free of a knee injury and Jacob Ramsey an ankle injury. There you have the four attacking incomings on the back of Isak’s outgoing. 

It is easy to understand why the transition has been hard. Howe is trying to present a new menu while half the ingredients are in cold storage and the other half are still rising to the temperature he demands.

To that end, putting four past Bradford from 27 shots in midweek felt like a breakthrough, especially with a striker, in understudy William Osula, scoring twice. League One opposition, yes, but insiders say everyone felt better about themselves afterwards. In the dressing room, they played Change This Pain for Ecstasy by Rex The Dog, an apt song title given the relief of plundering four in one match, doubling their total from six previous outings.

It means a team who were starting to shrink in front of goal are suddenly walking a little bit taller, and Arsenal at St James’ on Sunday is a game for which they always extend an inch. The last three on Tyneside have brought three wins at a cumulative scoreline of 4-0.

But as much as Howe has called on others to contribute, it is the man who walks tallest of all, 6ft 6in Woltemade, who will determine what heights this new-look Newcastle can scale this season. For now, he and his team are a skyscraper wrapped in scaffolding.