Nick Woltemade

[GEFAFWISP]

He looked pretty good as #9 when he headed that ball into the net on his debut.

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, GEFAFWISP said:

He looked pretty good as #9 when he headed that ball into the net on his debut.

Didn’t score goals in a minor European league though, so he can’t be one

[GEFAFWISP]

Just now, TheBrownBottle said:

Didn’t score goals in a minor European league though, so he can’t be one

But he drops deep!

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, GEFAFWISP said:

But he drops deep!

Not allowed - it means zero killer instinct.  Unlike Kane, who had scored (checks notes) scored 3 top flight goals by the age of 22.  

[TheBrownBottle]

You’d think that as a club we’d laugh at the notion that a player who started their career in a position which wasn’t centre forward won’t have the instincts of a centre forward.  I mean, we named our main stand after one bloke who got switched from the wing to centre forward because of unforeseen circumstances.  

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by TheBrownBottle

[The College Dropout]

20 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

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.  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9562235/Wayne-Rooney-reveals-HATED-playing-striker-Manchester-United-saying-awful.html

 

'It took me seven or eight years to learn how to play there and to learn to play with your back to goal. It's the hardest position to play...I weren't enjoying it, but it was my best two years of scoring. I remember coming off the pitch and scoring two goals and saying, "I was awful. I didn't play that well today. I didn't have that many touches of the ball."'

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by The College Dropout

[simonsays]

Not sure Big Nick struggles with his back to goal mind.  

[Kanj]

1 hour ago, Smal said:

his weight of pass is ludicrous 

biggest thing I noticed last night. His inclusion in the team has also required the rest of the midfield and attack to become more involved and to take pops at goal. This was needed from us for ages, we’ve been far too reliant on Wilson and Isak scoring the majority of goals. 
 

of course Nick is in education mode, we all knew that signing him and knew that was the plan for this season and next most likely. So be good if people gave him the space and benefit of the doubt that it may show some matches and may not. Last night was massively encouraging to see his class on the ball making passes and linking play that we’ve not seen in ages. 

[The College Dropout]

5 minutes ago, Kanj said:

biggest thing I noticed last night. His inclusion in the team has also required the rest of the midfield and attack to become more involved and to take pops at goal. This was needed from us for ages, we’ve been far too reliant on Wilson and Isak scoring the majority of goals. 
 

of course Nick is in education mode, we all knew that signing him and knew that was the plan for this season and next most likely. So be good if people gave him the space and benefit of the doubt that it may show some matches and may not. Last night was massively encouraging to see his class on the ball making passes and linking play that we’ve not seen in ages. 

We don’t have the team for spreading the goals around imo.  Only Gordon/Barnes has a track record of scoring goals consistently.  The squad is setup for the strike to bag goals imo. Elanga nope.  Murphy nope.  Bruno and Joe are good for a few. 

[Coffee_Johnny]

13 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

We don’t have the team for spreading the goals around imo.  Only Gordon/Barnes has a track record of scoring goals consistently.  The squad is setup for the strike to bag goals imo. Elanga nope.  Murphy nope.  Bruno and Joe are good for a few. 

League goal  scorers last season:

Voldemart 23

Barnes 9

Murphy 8

Gordon 6

Bruno 5

Tonali 4

Joelinton 4

Schar 4

Another three on one a piece.
 

2023-24

 Voldemart 21

Gordon 11

Wilson 9

Bruno 7

Longstaff 6

Barnes 5

Schar 4

Miggy 3

Murphy 3

Joelinton 2 

Burn 2

Botman 2

Another eight on one goal. 
 

There’s a bit of spreading it around. 37 goals from midfielders last season (of 66). 40 the year before. Obviously more so if cups included. 

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by Coffee_Johnny

[Kanj]

Nick and Wissa need to split the majority Isak tally + Joelinton and the like need to chip in more. Simple. 

[The College Dropout]

I think you've misinterpreted my point.

 

My point is - I don't think we have the squad to spread the goals out much further than we already do. Kanj said we've been overly reliant on our 9's. My point is that is by design, we aren't setup to spread the goals any more than we do. We look to get our strikers into great positions. Our right winger is there to get it to the main striker.

 

A team like Arsenal is setup for a wider spread of goals. They do not look for their striker. Gyokeres will score goals but he would score more for a team that more actively looks for their striker.

[Coffee_Johnny]

8 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I think you've misinterpreted my point.

 

My point is - I don't think we have the squad to spread the goals out much further than we already do. Kanj said we've been overly reliant on our 9's. My point is that is by design, we aren't setup to spread the goals any more than we do. We look to get our strikers into great positions. Our right winger is there to get it to the main striker.

 

A team like Arsenal is setup for a wider spread of goals. They do not look for their striker. Gyokeres will score goals but he would score more for a team that more actively looks for their striker.

Well, get what you’re saying but not sure I agree with you. It is hardly as if we are banging it forward for a striker to chase or crossing ad naseum for the big man to nod it in. Over half our goals have come from midfield and a decent wedge from defenders (less last season to be fair) so the recent facts also don’t seem to support any ‘we are set-up in a way which overly relies on our striker(s) to score the majority’ theory.  

[Mole]

I think there's a case to be made that a striker of this profile can once the chemistry improves can in fact make chances for others so they spread around though.

 

I know it's lower league opposition but I thought the last 20 minutes were really encouraging as far as getting late runners into dangerous positions as a result of his playmaking.

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by Mole

[Kanj]

We spread it well tbh, just saying that option 1 last 3 seasons was praying for the #9 to score THEN the others. It feels like the onus now is really on the collective. Like I said, I think the idea is we need Wissa and Woltemade to make up the majority of Isak’s goals and lads like Barnes, Elanga, Murphy, Gordon need to pick up a little more + we really need Joelinton and Bruno in amongst the goals too. 

[Mole]

I hope Joelinton crashes the box more, when I first started watching this season I was a bit confused why he wasn't. I guess it's possible he just has certain tactical instructions that I'm not really aware of, but it feels like he has the right physical profile to be able to do it and it would give the other midfielders more space to find passes that are dangerous.

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Well, get what you’re saying but not sure I agree with you. It is hardly as if we are banging it forward for a striker to chase or crossing ad naseum for the big man to nod it in. Over half our goals have come from midfield and a decent wedge from defenders (less last season to be fair) so the recent facts also don’t seem to support any ‘we are set-up in a way which overly relies on our striker(s) to score the majority’ theory.  

I’ve not said we are overly reliant. I think our spread of goals is fine. We were over reliant on Isak last season mind but he was world class and we didn’t have anyone else capable in the role.   Think Nick W and Wissa will replace the Isak goals between them, hopefully more.  
 

We’ve been getting 12-15 goals from central midfield.  More is great but I don’t think that’s bad. 

[jackyboy]

I was very impressed with him last night. I tight situations he screened the ball well and picked out some good passes when being pressured by defenders. At one time the ball came to him, back to the goal and he received it spun away in the same movement and left his marker for dead. Our wingers and Wissa will thrive on this

[Gallowgate Toon]

Howe has said that there needs to be a balance with Woltemade's game as he likes to be so involved, but I don't think we should limit that. There will be some games/moments where his roaming will be class, other games we'll want him to stay higher & more fixed. He seems intelligent enough to understand tactical instruction and his technique makes him very flexible for us tactically.

[Casey]

In truth he's played about 2 and a bit games:

20m v Bradford

30m vs Barca

60m v Wolves

80m v Bournemouth

 

I'm not sure we can draw any sweeping conclusions about how he'll fit into the team or his capabilities and limitations.

 

He looks good, at least to me. Very comfortable on the ball, doesn't seem overawed by the PL or physically out of place. Excited to see him show us what he can do and how he'll grow. 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by Casey

[Groundhog63]

4 hours ago, Smal said:

his weight of pass is ludicrous 

This. Wears size 11 slippers

[Kanj]

6 minutes ago, Casey said:

In truth he's played about 2 and a bit games:

20m v Bradford

30m vs Barca

60m v Wolves

80m v Bournemouth

 

I'm not sure we can draw any sweeping conclusions about how he'll fit into the team or his capabilities and limitations.

 

He looks good, at least to me. Very comfortable on the ball, doesn't seem overawed by the PL or physically out of place. Excited to see him show us what he can do and how he'll grow. 

 

 

 

 

no fear in his play, his back to goal stuff that he's so widely known for looks like it will translate seamlessly into england. We jsut look so bloody fluid at times, its very cool to see. 

[Coffee_Johnny]

41 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I’ve not said we are overly reliant. I think our spread of goals is fine. We were over reliant on Isak last season mind but he was world class and we didn’t have anyone else capable in the role.   Think Nick W and Wissa will replace the Isak goals between them, hopefully more.  
 

We’ve been getting 12-15 goals from central midfield.  More is great but I don’t think that’s bad. 

Ok well, when you said: “ The squad is setup for the strike to bag goals imo.” I took that to mean that you think our set-up is overly reliant on a striker to do our scoring.
You also said  “We don’t have the team for spreading the goals around imo. “ Which I took to mean not only do you think we are set-up (tactically) to be overly reliant on a striker, but that as “Only Gordon/Barnes has a track record of scoring goals consistently…” we don’t have players who can chip in with goals, e.g. “Elanga nope.  Murphy nope.”  If I have misinterpreted your meaning then maybe it wasn’t obvious from what you wrote/how you expressed it. I simply pointed out that only around a third of our goals in the last two seasons have come from strikers. And there are others,  like Murphy with 8 PL goals last year for instance, who show we do ‘spread the goals around’. Also, Elanga scored 6 for Forest last season. Which I think is a reasonable minimal guess for how many he may contribute this season. He’s not had that many minutes and already scored in a friendly (vs Arsenal). 

[nufcjmc]

27 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Ok well, when you said: “ The squad is setup for the strike to bag goals imo.” I took that to mean that you think our set-up is overly reliant on a striker to do our scoring.
You also said  “We don’t have the team for spreading the goals around imo. “ Which I took to mean not only do you think we are set-up (tactically) to be overly reliant on a striker, but that as “Only Gordon/Barnes has a track record of scoring goals consistently…” we don’t have players who can chip in with goals, e.g. “Elanga nope.  Murphy nope.”  If I have misinterpreted your meaning then maybe it wasn’t obvious from what you wrote/how you expressed it. I simply pointed out that only around a third of our goals in the last two seasons have come from strikers. And there are others,  like Murphy with 8 PL goals last year for instance, who show we do ‘spread the goals around’. Also, Elanga scored 6 for Forest last season. Which I think is a reasonable minimal guess for how many he may contribute this season. He’s not had that many minutes and already scored in a friendly (vs Arsenal). 

 

I dont think either of you need my help debating but I think you both could be right? 

 

Just looking at the prem only 

 

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/team/stats/_/id/361/league/ENG.1/season/2024

 

in 23/24 season we scored 85 goals spread over 20 different goal scorers the rat getting 21 of them 

in 24/25 that dropped to 68 goals spread over 11 goal scorers the rate getting 23 of them 

 

missing loads of context like an ineffective wilson last year and taking out the chance creation/assist data as I am stuck at work and dont have time to deep dive. 

 

I think we were setup to get the rat on the ball and scoring goals he was very good at it we press to get up the pitch to give him maximum chance to do what he did best. 

 

We are now going to have to evolve we have big Nick which on current showing isnt yet as prolific but drops deep and likes to bring others into the game/goal scoring opportunities. Some may say a team player and selfless?. 

 

I think we will and probably need a see a greater spread of goals among the team I hope this will come naturally as the team doesnt just aim to give it to the no.14 ASAP. 

 

Evolution/different approach rather than criticism?

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by nufcjmc

[The College Dropout]

I never said we are overly reliant on our strikers. I am content with that spread of goals. This is the second time I’m saying this. 
 

You didnt need to type all that.  

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by The College Dropout