Solving Newcastle United’s centre-forward dilemma remains a work in progress. Or to be more precise, a work that is currently showing very little progress at all.
Wissa has only scored one Premier League goal all season; Woltemade has not scored a goal of any description in his last 13 outings. Together, the pair cost just short of £125m last summer. You don’t have to look too hard to find one of the key causes of the Magpies’ struggles this season.
“The most important ends of the pitch are how you defend your goal and how you attack the opposition goal, and we need to find the best solution for the next game,” said Howe, who was speaking ahead of tonight’s trip to Tottenham.
“That may well be something that keeps evolving until we find the solution that we like. We’ve got new players that we’re trying to bed into the team format.
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“I’ve got to be honest, it’s not quite functioned fully yet with the players that have been mentioned [in attack] and that’s something we’ll continue to do until we like the look of it.”
Woltemade’s languid style makes him an obvious target for criticism when things are not going well, but the collective effort of the Newcastle squad has been questioned in the wake of Saturday’s home defeat to Brentford, which completed a miserable week that also featured heavy defeats at Liverpool and Manchester City.
For the vast majority of Howe’s reign, Newcastle’s players have clearly been running their hearts out for him. Is that still the case?
“I would defend them on that,” said Howe. “It’s an easy criticism to make [players not trying] when you don’t win and the performance isn’t at the level we would want it to be. It’s easy to accuse the players of that, but obviously I see a different side. I see the preparation and the players in every moment.
“I’ve had groups where you would question their honesty – I’m not sat here always saying the same things – not necessarily here, because I think here we’ve had some unbelievable teams and I think the squad now is really strong in terms of psychology.
“But we have to answer those questions, and the only place to do that is on the pitch. If there are suggestions that people felt we didn’t execute everything or leave it all out on the pitch then we have to take that on the chin. The only way to respond is on the pitch, to make sure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards.”
Newcastle (probable, 4-3-3): Pope; Trippier, Thiaw, Burn, Hall; Guimaraes, Tonali, Ramsey; Elanga, Wissa, Barnes.