Nick Woltemade

[black_n_white]

Doesnt look like he’s very well suited to a 4-3-3 formation?

[r0cafella]

2 minutes ago, black_n_white said:

Doesnt look like he’s very well suited to a 4-3-3 formation?

I think he can be, but a lot of tweaks needed. 

[healthyaddiction]

10 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

I don't think it is, you play then both and you can't rotate. Your an injury away from your system imploding. 

At the same time, they're not really suited to rotating between them, as they're very different players and we'd need to play differently to get the most out of each of them as the lone striker.

[Zero]

Just to think it’s a bit weird if we really need Nick to drop that deep to help. We have 3 CM already, so in fact we need 4 players around the circle to bring the ball forward?

[The College Dropout]

19 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

I don't think it is, you play then both and you can't rotate. Your an injury away from your system imploding. 

Ok so let's play an inferior team so we can rotate that inferior team.

 

We can still go back to 433 or a back 5 when needed.

[Wallsendmag]

46 minutes ago, black_n_white said:

Doesnt look like he’s very well suited to a 4-3-3 formation?

 

Agree. He'd be much better playing with a traditional number 9 in the sense of the word. He plays much deeper than a typical out and out centre forward. It's why I have some sympathy for our wingers. In the past they would get the ball and see Isak or Wilson in the box so there's their target there. Often they'll get the ball now and Woltemade is deeper than they are so they aren't sure of their next move and things break down.

 

It's not a criticism of Woltemade. It's the kind of forward he is, but I don't think we'll see the best of him until Wissa plays, whenever that might be when I think we'll go to a more 442, 4411 type of formation.

[KingArthur]

53 minutes ago, black_n_white said:

Doesnt look like he’s very well suited to a 4-3-3 formation?

I think he said in an interview Howe sees him as a 10 in 4-4-1-1.

[Erikse]

Just now, Wallsendmag said:

 

Agree. He'd be much better playing with a traditional number 9 in the sense of the word. He plays much deeper than a typical out and out centre forward. It's why I have some sympathy for our wingers. In the past they would get the ball and see Isak or Wilson in the box so there's their target there. Often they'll get the ball now and Woltemade is deeper than they are so they aren't sure of their next move and things break down.

 

It's not a criticism of Woltemade. It's the kind of forward he is, but I don't think we'll see the best of him until Wissa plays, whenever that might be when I think we'll go to a more 442, 4411 type of formation.

 

Not only that, but when the striker is not in the box, the defenders can focus almost exclusively on stopping the wingers. As we know, we don't have the best dribblers out wide, so they want some space to work with.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

The combo of Wolt being our only striker and not having Tino and Hall is really limiting what the team can do. Hopefully Hall comes back in, when's Tino back? Wissa would be much better suited to us with these two out but ya know. 

[jack j]

This fella is the biggest conundrum for the manager to solve imo.

He just doesnt fit the 4-3-3 we have usually played. He's picking the ball up where a number 10 or even a centre mid would be. Then quite often he is losing the battle with a centre half who is quite happy to go out to him because they know there is no threat in behind because he has very little pace

 

It's either going to be a 4-2-3-1 or Wissa is going to need to hit the ground running in the favoured 4-3-3

[Chicken Dancer]

He’s an absolutely glorious player and I love him to bits but I can’t deny he’s had a detrimental effect on how we play. 
 

We need to change to him, rather than him to us imo.

[Lush Vlad]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Aye.

 

I think the vision is 4-2-3-1. Wissa in place for tap ins, looking to get behind a defensive line. Woltemade supporting.

 

Didn't Howe used to play that or a sort of 4-4-1-1 at Bournemouth?  I'm sure the 4-3-3 he seems wedded to here was a change from what he used to play. 

[AJ9]

I think he could still work as the focal point in a system that prioritises a low block/fast transitions approach. We probably need the following to work though…

 

Hall and Tino to be fit.

Tonali and Ramsey/Joe/Willock as 8s

A 6 that sits and joins a 3 at the back when wingers bomb on

Elanga to start and find form

 

And a massive change to our pressing patterns and baiting the press from the opposition 

 

[KaKa]

He's really most suited to a slow build up  possession team that wants a striker that gets involved in play, so more of the typical Pep or Arteta style.

 

For him to work in this setup the wingers have to be higher and threatening to run in behind a lot more, and that pass to them has to be made when it's on, in order to push the other team's defence back. Woltemade is not the threat in behind that previous strikers have been.

 

Our wingers are not really creating that space for the team as they either aren't staying high enough and looking to get in behind or they aren't being played in over the top when they do. We are not good enough to play through the middle with how congested it is now, as we just don't have those sorts of players.

 

When we played Bilbao the commentators kept going on about how we needed to play the ball over the top as it was on the whole game for the wingers and then Joelinton who started making forward runs from the middle as well. We then played it a few times, which I think caused them to relent on their press a bit more in the second half.

 

[Keefaz]

Weird player. Amazed he's got the goals he has.

[The College Dropout]

Agree he's more suited to teams who will camp opposition on the end of their box or deeper.

 

Even if he ends up a supporting striker. He still needs to make more runs in behind.

[Sibierski]

Just get the wingers sitting more narrow to run beyond him. At the moment, they’re still getting chalk on their boots, so further away from goal. Need a CM to run beyond him more often too. It’s small tweaks that can yield big changes. 
 

We have so much pace in attack, we should be seeing the effectiveness of it with this guy dropping off and taking a CB with him. But a combination of the above, and our players executing passes dreadfully / not even doing the long pass, it’s making us and him seem cumbersome.

[ToonAbroad]

Just won a DFB Fair Play award for how he acted at Stuttgart last season - https://www.kicker.de/fair-play-medaille-fuer-woltemade-1164564/artikel#twfeed

[madras]

49 minutes ago, Sibierski said:

Just get the wingers sitting more narrow to run beyond him. At the moment, they’re still getting chalk on their boots, so further away from goal. Need a CM to run beyond him more often too. It’s small tweaks that can yield big changes. 
 

We have so much pace in attack, we should be seeing the effectiveness of it with this guy dropping off and taking a CB with him. But a combination of the above, and our players executing passes dreadfully / not even doing the long pass, it’s making us and him seem cumbersome.

There were at couple of occasions V Fulham when we did this and the next phase (the ball to either of them) never came. Definitely need a CM run off him which I thought was the point of Ramsey and of which Murphy has been the only one to really do in Nicks first couple of games.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by madras

[Sibierski]

27 minutes ago, madras said:

There were at couple of occasions V Fulham when we did this and the next phase (the ball to either of them) never came. Definitely need a CM run off him which I thought was the point of Ramsey and of which Murphy has been the only one to really do in Nicks first couple of games.

 

 

 

Joelinton crashing into the box against Bilbao is what we need, but domestically it’s been non existent this season.
 

Do think Tonali would be superb at it if we then had Miley sitting deep.

[Conjo]

4 hours ago, KingArthur said:

I think he said in an interview Howe sees him as a 10 in 4-4-1-1.

 

Annoying as fuck to find old interviews he's done for random channels/publications on youtube. I could have sworn he had an interview (from the training ground) recently-ish, where he was asked about this and said he saw Woltemade as a striker, and that while he couldn't rule it out as an option if a game required it, it was unlikely that him and Wissa would be starting games together. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

In theory Woltemade seems ideal for a central role with 2 goalscoring wingers playing with him. It’s not really working but I don’t think it’s something to pin on the big lad alone. 

[Kanj]

I am actually really disappointed in how often our wingers don't run beyond him, fail to look up to cross to him and play it to nobody. Having said that, Nick has to bust his ass to get into the box and into the penalty spot area at all times. 

 

I have no other major issues with him, he's a really good player and the wingers/cm/fullbacks need to use their brains -- Isak is no longer there and Wissa isn't there yet. Play to the personnel that is on the pitch. 

[Andy]

We're asking him to do an impossible task, and it's one that Isak was required to do at times last season and struggled with too. 

 

Impossible to judge him until we start controlling games and looking to break teams down with constant pressure. He's got no chance on turnovers when he's having to camp the middle of the pitch hoping for something to break his way. 

[huss9]

just a bit too laid back.

classic hipster.

he's class but needs to just step up the urgency.