Julian Nagelsmann fires another shot at Newcastle over Nick Woltemade

Nick Woltemade had a tricky first season at Newcastle United following his £69m move from VfB Stuttgart.

The German international became Newcastle's record signing last summer, and after getting off to a flying start, things started to go awry for the 24-year-old as Eddie Howe struggled to get the best out of his new striker.

As Woltemade joined after the season was already underway, Howe had the difficult task of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Woltemade's style is vastly different to Alexander Isak, who he was brought in to replace, and the team just wasn't set up to take advantage of the German's skills.

A lack of time on the training pitch made it a long season for Woltemade, who struggled to adapt to how Newcastle plays. It's no coincidence that he started to improve towards the end of the season after Newcastle had dropped out of cup competitions and had time in midweek to actually train properly.

Julian Nagelsmann says Newcastle are using Woltemade wrong

For much of the season, Woltemade was played in a deeper role than he's used to, and that's something that has seriously irked Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann, who already publicly took umbrage with the move, and now he's been at it again.

Speaking to the German media ahead of Germany's World Cup warm-up games (h/t The Chronicle), Nagelsmann has once again spoken about how Woltemade is being deployed at Newcastle and how it's not benefiting his game.

"He’s not a classic counter-attacking striker.

"At Newcastle, he’s often 70 metres away from goal, which makes it difficult for him to get into the box

"He often initiated things out wide, and then the ball was in the box so quickly that he could no longer get there himself. You have to get him closer to goal."

Nick Woltemade lacks pace - but that doesn't have to be a negative

The thing is, Nagelsmann isn't wrong. Woltemade likes the ball at his feet, but he's not got great pace, so trying to play balls in behind the defence for him to run onto is just pointless.

We need to either play it into him in the box for him to use his footwork to turn defenders inside out, or get crosses in when he's already in the box.

We're sure Howe will be watching him in action for Germany at the World Cup, and hopefully we'll see exactly what it is we've got in our arsenal. 

Once Howe cracks the formula with Woltemade, we're convinced he's going to be a star.