Nick Woltemade

[Casey]

3 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Ok. He hasn’t shown (in a few appearances true) that he knows how to play like a 9.  He’s not played as a 9 a tremendous amount of times either. And you can see it.  
 

Your Isak’s, Etikite’s, started as 9s.  You can see it in their mentality.  Where you could always tell Rooney didn’t love being a 9 even when asked. But he could adapt his game to it easily. He knew the Role. 

He's played striker 105 times compared to shadow striker / off the striker 36 times and 19 games as AM (#10). 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by Casey

[The College Dropout]

7 minutes ago, Casey said:

He's played striker 105 times compared to shadow striker / off the striker 36 times and 19 games as AM (#10). 

 

 

 

I think a lot of that is in the Lower levels. In the Bundesliga he’s played 38 games at SS, AM or RW even. 29 times as striker.  
 

Off the striker isn’t a striker imo.  
 

 

You can see it. He doesn’t have the same movement to goal. 

[Solitude20]

 

His link-up play definitely gives the wingers more chances, but the problem is Gordon and Elanga aren’t exactly prolific finishers

[janpawel]

9 hours ago, Conjo said:

Morgan Rogers and end product isn't something I'd expect to see in the same sentence. Great ball carrier though.

 

30 G/A in all comps last season. That's a CF return 

[Elliottman]

Harvey Barnes is going to love this guy, twice he put him in last night. The type of link up that made him so deadly before he joined us. 

[Zero]

52 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Ok. He hasn’t shown (in a few appearances true) that he knows how to play like a 9.  He’s not played as a 9 a tremendous amount of times either. And you can see it.  
 

Your Isak’s, Etikite’s, started as 9s.  You can see it in their mentality.  Where you could always tell Rooney didn’t love being a 9 even when asked. But he could adapt his game to it easily. He knew the Role. 

 

Yea I agree, I just mean Woltemade is on the right track - ultimately his goal is to be another Kane who is exactly the type of striker I am talking about. Bayern have the same vision.
 

Ekitike started as a 9 - agree with that, but for Isak it’s probably not the case, as least not that effective as a 9 back at Dortmund and Real Soceidad days. He was well-trained at Newcastle for this. I remember Howe specifically mentioned this in one of his interview.

 

Long road ahead, but I can see him being a world class striker as good as Isak in 2/3 years.

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, Zero said:

 

Yea I agree, I just mean Woltemade is on the right track - ultimately his goal is to be another Kane who is exactly the type of striker I am talking about. Bayern have the same vision.
 

Ekitike started as a 9 - agree with that, but for Isak it’s probably not the case, as least not that effective as a 9 back at Dortmund and Real Soceidad days. He was well-trained at Newcastle for this. I remember Howe specifically mentioned this in one of his interview.

 

Long road ahead, but I can see him being a world class striker as good as Isak in 2/3 years.

I hope so. But I think it's difficult to teach someone how to be a killer. Kane was a killer first, then refined his wider game.

 

People overemphasise Isak's struggles at Dortmund and Sociedad. Isak scores 10 goals in the equivalent of 18 full matches in the top Swedish division as a 17-year-old. Isak scores 13 in 16 as a 20-year-old in the Eredivisie. This is why Isak was a wonderkid from early. He showed he knew how to score goals in mens football from the very start of his career.

 

Nick W doesn't hit double figures until 21 in the 3rd tier of German football. He's playing various roles too. They don't have similar career arcs at all. Isak was able to hit the ground running because his learning curve was less steep and his profile was plug & play into our system. I can see Nick W needs to sharpen his striker instincts and he's a way different profile to what we've ever had at striker.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

You can see why he hasn’t played as a striker throughout his career. He doesn’t look like one to me. Wants to link it a bit too much. 
 

He adds a much needed level of football to our team however. As he learns how to be a proper 9 I expect him to play with Wissa a lot this season. 
 

Exciting player overall but you can see he need a lot of development as a 9. 

 

I thought his main position has always been striker. 

[The College Dropout]

41 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

I thought his main position has always been striker. 

Not in the Bundesliga. Which is part of the reason why he’s a bit of a late bloomer. Barely scored a Bundesliga goal prior to last season.  Had not played a ton of Bundesliga matches either. He’s learning. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

But he's played nearly 3 times as many games at CF as anywhere else overall, the next is second striker. And he's over a goal every other game when playing CF.

 

It's just as bit annoying when people say he doesn't look like a striker, when what we really mean is he doesn't look like the type of striker we expect. 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by AyeDubbleYoo

[huss9]

cant remember which goal it was.

but all the players went over to him to let him know how important he was in the build up to it.

[Infinitely Content]

As has been said, Barnes made his name at Leicester with 1-2's on the edge of the box. In his time here thus far, he hasn't really had anyone to link up with in the same way. Woltemade can be that, in fact he's perfect for it.

Get Barnes into a little bit of space in advanced positions and he's still our most deadly player imo.

[John P]

Looked very classy when he came on, their defenders couldn't get near him. Love his link up play around the edge of the box

[KaKa]

22 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

But he's played nearly 3 times as many games at CF as anywhere else overall, the next is second striker. And he's over a goal every other game when playing CF.

 

It's just as bit annoying when people say he doesn't look like a striker, when what we really mean is he doesn't look like the type of striker we expect. 

 

 

 

 

Acting as though they've never seen a striker that drops off and links play before.

 

The team is getting more and more accustomed to him and will start finding him on cutbacks when he arrives later on in moves he's started off, and he'll start banging in the goals soon enough.

 

Then they'll stop saying he's not a striker.

[KaKa]

24 minutes ago, Infinitely Content said:

As has been said, Barnes made his name at Leicester with 1-2's on the edge of the box. In his time here thus far, he hasn't really had anyone to link up with in the same way. Woltemade can be that, in fact he's perfect for it.

Get Barnes into a little bit of space in advanced positions and he's still our most deadly player imo.

 

Agreed.

 

Think Barnes on the left and Osula on the right, like we ended last night, really fit that wide forward role that would benefit massively from what Woltemade does.

[sixx]

Love how he can make an inch perfect, weighted pass when he looks completely off balance. Bit like Kane when he seems to have the ball at his heels, like he’s just about to fall on his face then suddenly the ball just appears in a perfect position at his teammate’s feet.

[elbee909]

Heaven forbid we have a forward that isn't one dimensional. "But we need someone to help break low blocks" 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

7 minutes ago, sixx said:

Love how he can make an inch perfect, weighted pass when he looks completely off balance. Bit like Kane when he seems to have the ball at his heels, like he’s just about to fall on his face then suddenly the ball just appears in a perfect position at his teammate’s feet.

 

Yeah, the one for the second Osula goal was mint, I was thinking he didn't have time to take the extra step and play it, suddenly it's away. 

[KaKa]

8 minutes ago, elbee909 said:

Heaven forbid we have a forward that isn't one dimensional. "But we need someone to help break low blocks" 

 

Yeah, he's going to be a key piece against low blocks.

 

I think we were looking for one of the strikers we signed this summer to have that sort of profile.

[TRon]

1 hour ago, Elliottman said:

Harvey Barnes is going to love this guy, twice he put him in last night. The type of link up that made him so deadly before he joined us. 

 

 

Elanga and Gordon should love this guy as well, he's perfect for a goal scoring wide man to link off. Would imagine Ramsey might be looking forward to stealing in on some nice chances as well from his lay offs. 

[The College Dropout]

44 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

But he's played nearly 3 times as many games at CF as anywhere else overall, the next is second striker. And he's over a goal every other game when playing CF.

 

It's just as bit annoying when people say he doesn't look like a striker, when what we really mean is he doesn't look like the type of striker we expect. 

 

 

 

He’s 23 and has scored 13 top flight league goals from open play in his career. 15 total.  I think he would do brilliantly to score another 13 league goals from open play this season alone.  
 

Thats the reason we spent £50m on a 28 year old striker. Wissa is meant to carry the primary goal burden this season imo. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

He’s 23 and has scored 13 top flight league goals from open play in his career. 15 total.  I think he would do brilliantly to score another 13 league goals from open play this season alone.  
 

Thats the reason we spent £50m on a 28 year old striker. Wissa is meant to carry the primary goal burden this season imo. 

All true, if not the point I was discussing. 

[The College Dropout]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

All true, if not the point I was discussing. 

My point is he needs to develop as a striker. He doesn’t have the experience and track record in that role as Isak did or most of our other targets. 
 

Hes 23 and not played a lot of top level football scoring goals as a striker. He needs more development in the role than Isak did.  

[Smal]

his weight of pass is ludicrous 

[TheBrownBottle]

3 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Ok. He hasn’t shown (in a few appearances true) that he knows how to play like a 9.  He’s not played as a 9 a tremendous amount of times either. And you can see it.  
 

Your Isak’s, Etikite’s, started as 9s.  You can see it in their mentality.  Where you could always tell Rooney didn’t love being a 9 even when asked. But he could adapt his game to it easily. He knew the Role. 

Rooney ‘didn’t love being a 9’?  The lad had played there since primary school.  You’re talking about one of the finest centre forwards of the last few decades.  Ekitike and Isak look less like centre forwards than Rooney.  
 

Deep lying centre forwards have existed since Hidegkuti.  A no.9 who drops deep is older than pretty much everyone on this site.  The idea that Woltemade doesn’t know the role is beyond ridiculous.