Premier League pundit Ian Wright has some words of advice for the rest of the Newcastle United squad about Nick Woltemade.
Woltemade is only three games into his Newcastle United career and already has a goal under his belt following last weekend’s header against Wolves.
Still, Eddie Howe’s side as a whole struggled in Newcastle’s 0-0 draw with Bournemouth on Sunday.
The towering German international sometimes looked isolated on the south coast, like the team are yet to fully click with him up front instead of Alexander Isak.
That’s only natural and, at some point, it would be reasonable to expect that to change.
However, pundit Wright believes there’s something the rest of the squad should already know about Newcastle United’s club-record signing.
- Who is Nick Woltemade? The ‘two-metre Messi-Musiala’ Newcastle United broke transfer record to sign
Ian Wright delivers verdict on Nick Woltemade
The pundit was working as part of the coverage of the game on the Premier League’s official website.
He said that Woltemade’s teammates simply have to understand that he’s going to drop deep, meaning there should be runners beyond him.
That didn’t happen very often at Bournemouth, although the fact that Howe made seven changes to the team who started in the loss at home to Barcelona probably didn’t help.
“They need to find out a bit more about him,” he told the Premier League’s official website at 14.58 BST on 21/09/2025.
“When he comes short, there’s no one going beyond him. You’ve got people in the box, but once Woltemade does link up play, there’s no one up top. They’ve got to know he’s capable of coming deep, linking it, and make sure somebody else comes across to fill the gap he leaves.”
Newcastle United have England’s Harry Kane problem
During England’s run to the Euro 2024 final, much was made about the fact Harry Kane was too far away from the box to impact play.
Though the Three Lions skipper did score three goals during the tournament, he was widely criticised for some of his performances.
Woltemade recently revealed he’s a big fan of Kane’s and there are indeed some similarities to how they like to play in terms of dropping deep.
Still, it looks like Newcastle have a similar problem as England. If there’s no one running beyond Woltemade, there’s very little attacking thrust.
At some point, that will surely change but it’s certainly something the team need to work on.
Receive a digest of our best Newcastle content each week direct to your mailbox
