Eddie Howe drops big Newcastle United hint when asked if he'll play Yoane Wissa & Nick Woltemade together
Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe was asked if he is considering playing Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa together.
Eddie Howe has the option of Yoane Wissa or Nick Woltemade to lead his Newcastle United attack against Chelsea.
The Magpies signed the two strikers for a combined £124million in the final few days of the summer transfer window, but only Woltemade has been available with Wissa missing three months with a knee injury.
Heading into Saturday’s Premier League lunchtime kick-off against Chelsea at St James’ Park, Howe - for the first time this season - has a decision to make over which striker starts.
Yoane Wissa scores full Newcastle United debut
Wissa has been gradually building up his fitness in recent weeks, first making substitute appearances against Burnley, Bayer Leverkusen and Sunderland before scoring on his full debut versus Fulham on Wednesday night.
“Yes, I think he's responded well,” Howe said. “I thought he played very well in the game. I thought his movement was excellent. His fitness, for how long he's been out, I thought was very good. He kept running. He kept the intensity levels up for a long period of time. So I was very, very pleased.
“As I said, he played longer than maybe we planned on him playing because he looked so good in that moment. He wanted to stay on and he wanted to score more goals, so I think it was a really good start for him. A very, very positive night.”
Yoane Wissa likened to Alexander Isak’s style
His own goal against Sunderland aside, Woltemade has had a productive start to life on Tyneside, starting all but four of his 22 games and scoring seven times.
But many regard Wissa as someone who similar to Alexander Isak, which in theory would allow Newcastle to play a similar style.
“Yes, I think Yoane is probably more closely linked to Alex's style,” Howe added. “Without being Alex himself, Yoane’s got his own strengths and is running him behind in particular.
“On Wednesday night, I thought it was excellent, his movement for slip passes and for stretching their back line, I thought it was right out of the top drawer. It was a great lesson for any young striker to watch his movement in that game.
“He's his own man and he will bring his own strengths. It's great to have him available and I think having that player there will benefit Nick as well. It definitely makes us stronger.”
Howe added: “I think Alex's role in the team obviously was so important. He was leading the line. I think whenever you have that player in that position with the multi-skills that he had, you're going to be a slightly different team.
“That's not to say that Nick can't be hugely successful here and the team can't be successful with him in it, but we just need to find ways to play better and fill those rhythms and partnerships that we pride ourselves on. I think the biggest challenge of the lot is the fact that we just haven't trained.
“We've got new players coming to the squad and we haven't been able to train with them and bed them into the team that way. That always proves very challenging, having to do it through games, which obviously isn't as quick, I don't think, as introduction as the training time that you'd normally get.”
Will Eddie Howe play Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade together?
With both strikers very different, how about pairing them together? Howe was asked that question by NewcastleWorld. And reading his response, it doesn’t seem it is something he is considering at present.
Howe replied: “I’ve always historically, going way back, used two strikers. Haven't done it so much here, but we did go through spells where we used Alex and Callum together, so, of course, you can adapt any system to any two players.
“But I think what is really important, or if and when you play two strikers, you don't lose control of the pitch in other areas and you have your two strikers starved of the ball.
“I think it's a delicate balance for us, two outstanding players that you'd love to see on the pitch together, of course, but not to the detriment of the team.”