Nick Woltemade

[Magnus]

Probably a good thing to be able to have Big Nick on the bench for a while isn’t it? Wissa needs to get a run after a long period out injured and Nick has played way more minutes than a lad coming from the slower pace of the Bundasliga probably should have. 
 

I’ve no concerns about Nick, clear talent. Just about how we coach and develop him…and I don’t have concerns there either with Eddie’s success with lots of our players.

 

 

[pinkeye]

Probably been said by many people on here but, I will say it again.

 

Woltemade is a perfect #10 player.  He would really thrive by being allowed to play just behind a main striker, one with great movement - such as Wissa....

I think it has also been said many times that Eddie is stubbornly sticking to his 4 3 3 formation and predictably will probably never (or at best rarely) play the two strikers together.

[janpawel]

I don't see us playing with a 10 at all, other than the odd time 

 

Look how ineffective Wirtz has been as a 10 for Liverpool, do any big  teams play with 2 CM's and 10, who've had sustained success? 

 

But let's say I'm wrong. And it's Joelinton who drops out the team with Bruno and Tonali as the 2 CM's, with Miley 3rd choice... Is Nick good enough out of possession, are we really a better team? 

 

 

[madras]

4 hours ago, pinkeye said:

Probably been said by many people on here but, I will say it again.

 

Woltemade is a perfect #10 player.  He would really thrive by being allowed to play just behind a main striker, one with great movement - such as Wissa....

I think it has also been said many times that Eddie is stubbornly sticking to his 4 3 3 formation and predictably will probably never (or at best rarely) play the two strikers together.

I always had a 10 down as more of a creative midfielder. I'd have Woltemade as a support striker, supporting Wissa's more fox in the box,no.9 central role.

[St1pe]

4 hours ago, pinkeye said:

Probably been said by many people on here but, I will say it again.

 

Woltemade is a perfect #10 player.  He would really thrive by being allowed to play just behind a main striker, one with great movement - such as Wissa....

I think it has also been said many times that Eddie is stubbornly sticking to his 4 3 3 formation and predictably will probably never (or at best rarely) play the two strikers together.

How many 10’s are as limited in movement as Woltemade? 
 

Would you play Kane as a 10? 

[Elephant]

Woltemade is not straight 10-position player, just like Thomas Müller isn’t too. But when you find right role and players around, his abilities becomes excellent for us.

 

Bayern will come around soon if he’s not happy.

 

He is not seen as replacement for Kane, it’s Müller they think about.

 

 

Edited January 5 by Elephant

[Jaqen]

27 minutes ago, St1pe said:

How many 10’s are as limited in movement as Woltemade? 
 

Would you play Kane as a 10? 

 

Kane has played as a 10 this season in some games and been ridiculous to be fair. 

 

Although Kane's game is much more suited to that role than Nick's. Fantastic passing range and shooting outside the box. 

 

Other than some nice touches and dropping deeper I don't really see much about Nick that makes him a 10. He's a striker IMO that just hasn't got used to playing the lone role properly yet. Which is expected. Think people forget he's only really been playing it a few months and learning in the hardest league and has also been ran into the ground due to no other options being available. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

And people forget he’s actually been good

[Mole]

The whole is he a striker or isn't he stuff is irritating to read tbh.

 

It's like I'm living in a fantasy land where the only strikers who exist are ones who play on the shoulder.

 

Going to be very frank and say if we won't get it to work then someone else will. Luckily I don't particularly believe there's any danger of this and it's just forum noise.

[Zero]

So he isn’t a striker and, already scored 9 goals just 4 months after joining a new team? 
 

Wow, WTH

 

 

Edited January 5 by Zero

[Kilcline]

When his movement/not getting into the six-yard box gets talked about I wonder, generally, if it's because what we train to do is different to how things unfold on the pitch.

 

We often build up and position ourselves like if Murphy doesn't cross it we're going to try and attack the box from the byline and look for cut backs if we've gone wide and the wingers haven't cut in. But whoever is wide more often than not sticks it across goal in that situation. There's no striker there (fair enough to hold their run if the defenders commit and hope the wide player sees the cut back, but yes ideally they'd still gamble) but then we rarely have the opposite winger/someone coming in at the back post anyway. When we have scored back post tap-in type goals this season they've both been from attacks that have broken fairly quickly and not in a crowded box, Gordon against Benfica and Barcelona the two that come to mind, Barnes has missed a couple of sitters from similar breaks/chances at the Leazes End this season too.

[Kanj]

6 minutes ago, Kilcline said:

When his movement/not getting into the six-yard box gets talked about I wonder, generally, if it's because what we train to do is different to how things unfold on the pitch.

 

We often build up and position ourselves like if Murphy doesn't cross it we're going to try and attack the box from the byline and look for cut backs if we've gone wide and the wingers haven't cut in. But whoever is wide more often than not sticks it across goal in that situation. There's no striker there (fair enough to hold their run if the defenders commit and hope the wide player sees the cut back, but yes ideally they'd still gamble) but then we rarely have the opposite winger/someone coming in at the back post anyway. When we have scored back post tap-in type goals this season they've both been from attacks that have broken fairly quickly and not in a crowded box, Gordon against Benfica and Barcelona the two that come to mind, Barnes has missed a couple of sitters from similar breaks/chances at the Leazes End this season too.

 

Bang on - opposite winger needs to crash back post. CF needs to gamble near post or stay central, and one of the midfielders needs to take a position that the CF isn't. 

[pinkeye]

59 minutes ago, Zero said:

So he isn’t a striker and, already scored 9 goals just 4 months after joining a new team? 
 

Wow, WTH

 

 

 

 

I didn't say he was not a striker, if you are referring to my comment about him being a #10 type of player.

If I could go back and reword the original comment I would have been clearer in that he should be played behind (or along side) a more mobile striker in a support /  additional striker role.

 

Ideally that would be in a 4 4 2 set up which we all know is probably never going to happen under Eddie.

 

To be clear, I really like him and support him in our team.  I am a little frustrated by his lack of physicality but, as someone else said, he is new into a very physical league and the step up will take a bit of adjustment for sure.  I think he should be winning more balls in the air, that is also probably something that will come in time. 

 

I want to compare him to Peter Crouch - who fair enough was in English football for his whole career so understood the physical nature of the sport.  I do think that this is the type of player he may become once he gets used to the Premier League.

 

I like him and only wish him well.

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, Mole said:

The whole is he a striker or isn't he stuff is irritating to read tbh.

 

It's like I'm living in a fantasy land where the only strikers who exist are ones who play on the shoulder.

 

Going to be very frank and say if we won't get it to work then someone else will. Luckily I don't particularly believe there's any danger of this and it's just forum noise.

TBF he's not played consistently as a striker in his career.

 

He's not even played consistently in a top league. He's 23 but he has a lot of development to do.

 

Before joining us, I believe he played fewer than the equivalent of 30 90-minute games as a striker in the Bundesliga.

 

Like literally before Jan 2025 he was going between SS and CF and the bench. The season before that, he played more as a AM or SS than CF for Bremen.

 

So there's validity when people say he doesn't look like he entirely knows what he's doing at ST/CF. He doesn't. It's valid when they say he looks more like a 10 (I think they mean supporting striker), because he's played a lot of football there.

 

As far as who he can be compared too: The Teddy Sheringham I watched growing up. Eidur Gudjohnson. In this era? Kai Havertz maybe? 

[Magpie Mover]

1 hour ago, Kilcline said:

When his movement/not getting into the six-yard box gets talked about I wonder, generally, if it's because what we train to do is different to how things unfold on the pitch.

 

We often build up and position ourselves like if Murphy doesn't cross it we're going to try and attack the box from the byline and look for cut backs if we've gone wide and the wingers haven't cut in. But whoever is wide more often than not sticks it across goal in that situation. There's no striker there (fair enough to hold their run if the defenders commit and hope the wide player sees the cut back, but yes ideally they'd still gamble) but then we rarely have the opposite winger/someone coming in at the back post anyway. When we have scored back post tap-in type goals this season they've both been from attacks that have broken fairly quickly and not in a crowded box, Gordon against Benfica and Barcelona the two that come to mind, Barnes has missed a couple of sitters from similar breaks/chances at the Leazes End this season too.

We must have to train in two completely different ways as Wissa and Woltemade are so completely different as players, which is why it's a pity that they don't get played together they might just compliment each other. 

[Jesse Pinkman]

For me he is more of an 11, with Wissa playing 9.

[Dr.Spaceman]

What's an 11? I thought that would be left wing. There is no way Wolte is a left winger 

[Lush Vlad]

Poor old Barnes.  3rd choice left winger now. 

[TaylorJ_01]

I think he's pretty damn good as a striker, but not when we're sitting really deep (as often happens) as he becomes too isolated and is too slow to do much breaking.

 

In theory we should hit him and he releases the wingers but never seems to happen like that so far.

 

Still, with Wissa back, I'm less worried about solving the Woltemade conundrum for now, and simply see him as a strong, different option. Teams will find it hard to set up against both Wissa and Woltemade throughout each game and in theory they won't know who's going to start.

[Erikse]

30 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Poor old Barnes.  3rd choice left winger now. 

 

That's Dan Burn.

 

 

Edited January 5 by Erikse

[Colos Short and Curlies]

It's Uber harsh on Barnes but with the current squad it is a 3-5-1-1 or 3-5+2 to get them both on the pitch.

 

The 4-3-3 becomes plan B and is easily switched to in game either to vary the attack or give a bit more cover of we are defending a lead without going all out defense.

 

It's also easy to do all right back to 5-4-1 in the right circumstances.

 

It also ensures that neither need play 90 mins in successive games, and ideally the formation gets us a couple of goals up after 60 mins in a lot of games so we can bring them both off when needed

[MagPar]

All this negativity is melting my brain. He's done much better than I thought he would with transitioning to a new league. He's scored some vital and impressive goals at a time when he had all the pressure on him to score as he was effectively our only striker.

 

Now he's got people on his back because Wissa has scuffed 2 goals. 

 

Support your players people. 

[Anderson]

15 minutes ago, Colos Short and Curlies said:

It's Uber harsh on Barnes but with the current squad it is a 3-5-1-1 or 3-5+2 to get them both on the pitch.

 

The 4-3-3 becomes plan B and is easily switched to in game either to vary the attack or give a bit more cover of we are defending a lead without going all out defense.

 

It's also easy to do all right back to 5-4-1 in the right circumstances.

 

It also ensures that neither need play 90 mins in successive games, and ideally the formation gets us a couple of goals up after 60 mins in a lot of games so we can bring them both off when needed

 

Possibly harsh on Barnes, but one way to sort out the problem of our other 3 underperforming wingers at least.

[Lush Vlad]

Small sample size.  But on the whole, we have looked shite with 3 or 5 at the back.  Might change with two strikers on and with the right personnel, of course.  

[Erikse]

I also think that the threat of injury and fatigue is another thing Howe thinks about when it comes to starting both available strikers. We won't have a striker to come off the bench later in the game, either. Would love to see it tried in atleast a few games, though..

 

 

Edited January 5 by Erikse