Eddie Howe explains why Nick Woltemade hasn’t been starting for Newcastle

Newcastle United broke their transfer record in the summer to bring in German striker Nick Woltemade, but after a strong start, the 24-year-old's minutes have hugely decreased.

The intention, when Nick Woltemade was signed, was to have Yoane Wissa as the starting striker while the German got used to his new surroundings and the English game, but an injury to Wissa saw Woltemade thrown into the starting XI.

A strong start and several goals eased fears that we may lack the firepower up front with the inexperienced striker leading the line, but eventually the goals started to dry up, and teams seemed to find a way to mark Big Nick out of games.

Eddie Howe moved Woltemade back into midfield to see if that would help him get into games more, but it barely helped.

Newcastle have struggled in front of goal all season, though, as evidenced by the fact that our top scorer is Anthony Gordon and most of his goals, outside of the Champions League, have come from the penalty spot.

Nick Woltemade needs to prove himself in training

When facing the media on Friday, Eddie Howe was asked again what Nick Woltemade has to do to get back into the starting lineup, as fans want to see their record signing given a chance. But as Howe states, Will Osula is scoring goals right now, so it's hard to make the change.

"It is difficult because our centre forwards have been productive. Anthony Gordon played up front and was scoring as the number nine and now Will Osula has come in and scored as a number nine. 

“At the minute we have gone with a different option to Nick. His fitness is fine. When he plays he has to deliver the goals we need."

Howe would touch on it again at the end of the presser, saying that Wissa and Woltemade need to prove themselves in training if they want to usurp Osula.

"Like with every player that's not playing, they have to show their worth in the training, and I think that's their shop window for me to pick them, to show how they train, how they commit to the training.

“How much they're prepared to put individual disappointment to the side for the team to then come back fighting again."

Is it time for a change of system?

If you were so inclined, you could read between the lines there and believe that Howe is suggesting that neither player is doing what's required in training.

However, Eddie Howe has mentioned last week anda gain this week that Wissa is showing huge improvements in training, and that he still has full belief in both players.

Howe keeps saying that there's only room for one striker in his system, which has us questioning why he doesn't change the system then? It's probably far too late in the season to be doing that, in fairness, but in future, when we have the numbers, why aren't we using more than one striker?

When we only had Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson, and both of them could be sidelined for weeks if the wind changed direction, it made sense to only play one, but we have three strikers now, and Anthony Gordon, who fancies himself as a number 9, so we could experiment with playing two up top. Just a thought.