Nick Woltemade opens up on change of position at Newcastle
A lot has been made of Nick Woltemade's first season at Newcastle United, and with good reason.
The German international started life on Tyneside very well and soon put fears to bed that the Magpies would miss Alexander Isak after the 6'6" striker went on an excellent goal-scoring run.
However, it didn't take long for the bubble to burst, and the goals dried up. Woltemade started to cut an isolated figure up top, and there seemed to be a disconnect between where he wanted to receive the ball and where his teammates wanted to feed it to him.
It led to Eddie Howe experimenting with the forward, giving him the Joelinton treatment and bringing him back into the midfield. This also had mixed results, and the question of what to do with Big Nick still remains.
Nick Woltemade admits he doesn't fit Howe's strategy
However, there's clearly still a top player in there, if we can work out what to do with him. And it seems like Woltemade himself doesn't mind being asked to play out of position.
Although he was originally asked by Bild (via BuliNews) if he feels he fits Eddie Howe's playstyle, and to that, he was quite honest.
“I don’t think you can say that. In the first few months, it worked well with me in attack. Several things have come together. Firstly, Bruno Guimaraes is out, our playmaker, and then a few other midfielders.“We are not an individual athlete, but a team. It is normal that you have to help out as a player at other positions. I played a position further back, and I think I did quite well there.
“In any case, the coach was satisfied with me. At the same time, he may have wished for a little more depth in the attack centre. Of course, a player like Anthony Gordon can give us that.”
Next season is huge for Woltemade
We maintain that next season we'll see an entirely different Nick Woltemade for Newcastle. After he's had a full pre-season in training with the squad and Howe can get a proper look at him on the training pitch, a game plan will form that best suits him.
This all depends, of course, on whether Eddie Howe is still at the club next season. We could have an entirely different manager given the uncertainty around Howe's future right now, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
A World Cup and a pre-season should get Woltemade's confidence back up and he'll be ready to prove all the doubters wrong next season. Fingers crossed.
