Nick Woltemade

[TheBrownBottle]

8 hours ago, Zero said:

 

That’s where I disagree most. You can’t blame the defending on a striker right? We are in fact scoring fine and it’s our defending that’s the problem

 

I mean seriously after so many defending horror show, most of the posts are criticising Nick? What? No fucking way

we ain’t doing defending or pressing properly just because of Nick? The one asked to play out of position?

I’ve always found it interesting that Thiaw is agreed to be a massive super duper success despite the fact that we now ship two or three goals in pretty much every home match and don’t look to have any more steel away from home.  I’ve seen before on other threads that we can use a calendar year as an assessable metric - so here’s one - if the average goals conceded in league matches this year was replicated over a season, we’d ship 72 goals.  Our defence looks frail and completely unorganised.  The entire side is not functioning at present. 

[Magpie Mover]

I suspect that a Schar Burn combo is still the best we have. Thiaw and Botman might look better players but our defensive record suggests otherwise.

[St1pe]

Agree with this 

[The Prophet]

12 hours ago, Magpie Mover said:

I suspect that a Schar Burn combo is still the best we have. Thiaw and Botman might look better players but our defensive record suggests otherwise.

 

Those players did also benefit from far versions of Pope and Trippier, along with a settled midfield in front of them.

[The Prophet]

16 hours ago, splinter said:

When you look at how Eddie's teams  have played he is a complete  miss fit.know we needed   striker but he was never a fit.

 

What if he's looking to evolve how his teams play?

[nufc123]

18 minutes ago, St1pe said:

Agree with this 

Not sure what happened to him after City & Chelsea.

[Yorkie]

Please forgive this latest glass-half full take.

 

I'm not sure what the future holds for Woltemade. I'm not convinced by him in either of the two positions he's played for us so far. However, I don't think he's being hard done by at all by being played in this position, and I think the 'Woltemade in CM = manager doesn't know what to do with him' thing is wrong. There's usually logic to everything the manager does; whether you agree with it or not is another thing.

 

Woltemade has done well in that role a couple of times (excellent away to Villa and Qarabag) and less well other times; particularly the other night. But I think he was playing that role against Man City mainly because we had no Ramsey, Miley or Bruno and we wanted to keep Joelinton fresh for Tuesday. Just a body really, at least for him to have played for as long as he did.

 

Howe has talked in press conferences about the guy needing to adapt to the league and maybe some stints in midfield is a deliberate choice to aid this apparently necessary learning experience. I certainly haven't missed him at centre-forward and can seen some value in playing him deeper; that way he's more actively involved in the patterns of play rather than an isolated observer. It's not bearing fruit for the team right now but maybe it's good for his own development and will mean more for the team in future.

 

As is the case with a lot of things, I think there's a tendency to make judgements on the immediate term without considering the bigger picture and the longer game. I appreciate we should expect faster results given the outlays on most of these new players but, in absence of that, maybe there's an element of just waiting and seeing.

[TaylorJ_01]

13 hours ago, Magpie Mover said:

I suspect that a Schar Burn combo is still the best we have. Thiaw and Botman might look better players but our defensive record suggests otherwise.

 

I've always thought Schar very underrated, probably just due to his longevity and low initial cost. Would argue he's been one of the best pure footballers in the team.

 

If we had a player of his quality upfront for the last decade he'd have 100+ goals.

[The College Dropout]

The team that won the League Cup (as in the defensive and midfield starters) is our strongest defensively and mentally. A tired Trippier, broken Pope, no Tino, no Bruno, no Schar - that's a lot of leadership out.

[TRC]

1 hour ago, Yorkie said:

Please forgive this latest glass-half full take.

 

I'm not sure what the future holds for Woltemade. I'm not convinced by him in either of the two positions he's played for us so far. However, I don't think he's being hard done by at all by being played in this position, and I think the 'Woltemade in CM = manager doesn't know what to do with him' thing is wrong. There's usually logic to everything the manager does; whether you agree with it or not is another thing.

 

Woltemade has done well in that role a couple of times (excellent away to Villa and Qarabag) and less well other times; particularly the other night. But I think he was playing that role against Man City mainly because we had no Ramsey, Miley or Bruno and we wanted to keep Joelinton fresh for Tuesday. Just a body really, at least for him to have played for as long as he did.

 

Howe has talked in press conferences about the guy needing to adapt to the league and maybe some stints in midfield is a deliberate choice to aid this apparently necessary learning experience. I certainly haven't missed him at centre-forward and can seen some value in playing him deeper; that way he's more actively involved in the patterns of play rather than an isolated observer. It's not bearing fruit for the team right now but maybe it's good for his own development and will mean more for the team in future.

 

As is the case with a lot of things, I think there's a tendency to make judgements on the immediate term without considering the bigger picture and the longer game. I appreciate we should expect faster results given the outlays on most of these new players but, in absence of that, maybe there's an element of just waiting and seeing.

For me he just isn’t a Howe style player, we know Eddie prefers 433. His future comes down to what we intend to do with the team next season.

 

I don’t see the point in forcing the issue, loan him out and move him on if we don’t want to play a style to suit him.

[The College Dropout]

More than the pace the lack of aggression or urgency that is the reason why he’s not a Howe player. 

[Keefaz]

If he hadn't cost 70 billion, he's the type of player you'd loan out to Sheffield United to get booted around a pitch for a bit

[Holloway]

18 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I’ve always found it interesting that Thiaw is agreed to be a massive super duper success despite the fact that we now ship two or three goals in pretty much every home match and don’t look to have any more steel away from home.  I’ve seen before on other threads that we can use a calendar year as an assessable metric - so here’s one - if the average goals conceded in league matches this year was replicated over a season, we’d ship 72 goals.  Our defence looks frail and completely unorganised.  The entire side is not functioning at present. 

Thiaw has his moments but so does every cb, it's the nature of the level they're competing at. Super duper patter seems a bit spiteful, most of us think he's been an excellent addition

[Kimbo]

Thiaw is a good player but I think he probably needs a leader alongside him. I’d say the same about Botman as well tbh.

[oldtype]

Thiaw looked completely invincible earlier in the season when we were stringing together clean sheets. He's had a shaky couple of months. That's perfectly normal and it usually all averages out in the end. You can't look at a player's worst run of games and assume that is their true form, just like you can't do the same based on their best run of games.

 

(Same goes for Woltemade as well)

 

On balance I'd say he's been a very good signing, especially given how little he cost.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9 by oldtype

[The Prophet]

Thiaw has been fine, the need to shit on everything is bizarre.

[The Prophet]

3 minutes ago, oldtype said:

Thiaw looked completely invincible earlier in the season when we were stringing together clean sheets. He's had a shaky couple of months. That's perfectly normal and it usually all averages out in the end. You can't look at a player's worst run of games and assume that is their true form, just like you can't do the same based on their best run of games.

 

On balance I'd say he's been a very good signing, especially given how little he cost.

 

He's had an unreliable keeper behind him, an aging full back to cover and a make shift midfield in front of him. On top if that he's barely had a rest all season.

 

Thiaw has had a very good debut season in English football, all things considered.

[oldtype]

2 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

He's had an unreliable keeper behind him, an aging full back to cover and a make shift midfield in front of him. On top if that he's barely had a rest all season.

 

Thiaw has had a very good debut season in English football, all things considered.

 

I think he (like the entire rest of the team really) plays a lot better when we have both first-choice fullbacks available. Unfortunately those games have been few and far between.

[The Prophet]

2 minutes ago, oldtype said:

 

I think he (like the entire rest of the team really) plays a lot better when we have both first-choice fullbacks available. Unfortunately those games have been few and far between.

 

For sure.

[Rich]

As much I love Wor Malick, I still think Tino, Schär, Burn, Hall is our best unit. Conversely, there’s no argument that Thiaw has been our best individual performer at CB, for me. Touch of the Bassongs going on there, cracking player but perhaps lacks the intangibles that the older heads bring?

[Rich]

To keep it somewhat on topic, though, while I’m still not ready to give up on Woltemade, I’ve had my fill of him in midfield. People are quick to forget his early season contributions. Dread to think where we’d be in the league without those goals .

[oldtype]

7 minutes ago, Rich said:

To keep it somewhat on topic, though, while I’m still not ready to give up on Woltemade, I’ve had my fill of him in midfield. People are quick to forget his early season contributions. Dread to think where we’d be in the league without those goals .

Agree that we’ve seen enough of him in that position, even if it’s partially motivated by necessity due to midfield injuries.

 

One thing I’ve noticed is that he’d basically stopped shooting at all from open play once he was moved to midfield. Even as a striker, his big weakness was that he picks and chooses his chances and basically can’t shoot at all from outside the box. If you’re going to shoehorn him into a position that takes away his goal threat entirely, then what is the point of him. One goal every 3-4 games may not be what you want from an attacking player, but it’s more than zero.

[RUHRLYASLEEVESUP]

16 minutes ago, Rich said:

To keep it somewhat on topic, though, while I’m still not ready to give up on Woltemade, I’ve had my fill of him in midfield. People are quick to forget his early season contributions. Dread to think where we’d be in the league without those goals .

As of March 9, 2026, Newcastle sit in 12th place with 39 points. Woltemade’s 7 league goals have directly secured 10 additional points for the club. Removing these goal contributions would leave Newcastle with 29 points, dropping them four places in the standings, just one point above the relegation zone.

[Rich]

[The College Dropout]

Firmly in the B team.