'We need' - Eddie Howe makes Nick Woltemade demand amid Newcastle United struggles
Eddie Howe is demanding more from Newcastle United’s club-record signing Nick Woltemade.
Eddie Howe says Newcastle United ‘need more’ from Nick Woltemade, despite his strong start to life on Tyneside.
Woltemade joined from Stuttgart in August and although the Magpies shelled out a club-record £69million, the plan was to ease the German into his new surroundings and put the goalscoring burden on Yoane Wissa.
Wissa scored 19 Premier League goals from Brentford last season and was identified as someone who could immediatelt step into the shoes of Alexander Isak, who moved to Liverpool for a British record £130m.
The 29-year-old joined for £55m on summer deadline day but a week later sustained a knee injury on international duty with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Because of that, Howe had little choice but to thrust Woltemade into the action.
Sink or swim the saying goes, and Woltemade has achieved the latter, scoring six goals in 12 starts. As a team, however, Newcastle are struggling, sitting 14th in the Premier League table and just two points above the relegation zone after the opening 11 matches.
Eddie Howe makes Nick Woltemade demand amid NUFC’s struggles
The Magpies host Manchester City at St James’ Park on Saturday and in his quest to turn around the season, Howe is still demanding more from Woltemade.
Howe said: “Whenever you're not training – and I think we spoke about this two years ago, you can never replicate it, there's nothing that you can do to simulate that falsely.
“We're doing a lot of repetition with him and video analysis, walking through situations. Obviously, the best way to do that is live and is within the training sessions, and I think it's easier for the player to understand it and to take it for things to become natural.
“But I have to say, considering the lack of training time we've had with him, I think he's done really, really well and he's tried to implement as well as he can what we've asked him to do.
“He started off really well in terms of goals. I think those goals in the international break will do him the world of good as well.
“Confidence is everything to a centre-forward, so I think he can be really pleased with himself. But we have to demand more and we need more from him in the sense that he's the focal point of the team.
“It's such an important position. Everything will come around him in terms of our performance, so there are big expectations on him, there's big pressure on his shoulders.
“He's handled that really well so far and then, of course, the team behind him have to deliver for him as well and we haven't done that well enough in the last couple of away games.”
Is Eddie Howe taking tips from Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann?
Woltemade arrived back on Tyneside earlier this week full of confidence after his three goals in matches against Luxembourg and Slovakia helped fire Germany into next summer’s World Cup in the United States.
The 23-year-old scored both goals in the 2-0 victory in Luxembourg before opening the scoring as Julian Nagelsmann’s side hammered Slovakia 6-0.
Howe said: “I watched those games but it’s difficult to take too much because I think every squad is different, every style of play is different and the opposition is different. But we know where Nick works best and how he operates best.
“We have tried to give him that framework and that environment here. But it depends how much of the ball you have and how strong and dominant you are in the game.
“Definitely looking back at the last two away games we have been too transitional to see him at his best, meaning we haven’t kept the ball well enough higher up the pitch to then feed him the ball in the areas where he works best. Technically we weren’t good enough against Brentford and West Ham. We will look to put that right.”