Following Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Brentford, The Mail’s Craig Hope shared some post-match thoughts on Nick Woltemade that divided opinion on social media.
Without criticising the player’s undoubted quality, he’s described the 6ft 6′ striker’s style of play as a ‘problem’, stating ‘he’s the missing piece in the puzzle to somebody else’s jigsaw’ in a follow-up comment on X.
Yes, he has big shoes to fill as a club-record signing and Alexander Isak’s replacement, but it’s widely understood that he’s a completely different striker. Where Isak would look to use his pace, burst in behind and press, Woltemade is at his best coming short and, for all his technical ability, he’s not blessed with pace.
Two former Premier League strikers Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton have weighed in on this debate and offered a similar view, with Shearer hailing his quality, but questioning his ability to fit into Eddie Howe’s high-energy style of play.
“I’ve said before that as good as Nick Woltemade is with the ball at his feet, he is a problem for Newcastle because he’s not the quickest, and he can’t press, and he doesn’t run in behind,” Shearer told Betfair.
“Eddie’s teams have always done that. Look at what Alexander Isak did or look at what Callum Wilson did, they all pressed and ran behind. But this guy can’t do that, and that’s a problem for Newcastle.”
BBC Sport’s Chris Sutton has also weighed in on Woltemade, highlighting how his lack of pace and movement in behind is making us too predictable to play against.
As a result, he feels our wingers or Joelinton need to do more to stretch defences in behind and questions what Eddie Howe will do up top when Yoane Wissa returns from injury, considering he is a striker who can play on the shoulder:
“Your team is only as good as the centre forward, and he doesn’t have pace. The movement in behind has to come from other areas, and they aren’t doing that enough.”
“When Isak played as a centre forward, defenders would be reluctant to really get so tight with him because he had that movement in behind. Woltemade doesn’t; he just doesn’t run in behind.
“I think it’s a massive problem because it has to come from Joelinton or the wide areas. I just think that he’s… he’s scored goals, his numbers are pretty good, but it makes them so predictable in the way that they play.
“I think it’s a problem. It will be really interesting when Wissa gets fit, how Eddie Howe goes about that, will he play him off Woltemade? But at least they will carry that threat from a central striking position.”