Fast forward six summers, and Newcastle once again found themselves heading to the Bundesliga to spend a club-record fee on a new centre-forward. Nick Woltemade was supposed to solve their attacking issues. Perhaps, in time, they will find themselves with another stellar midfielder rather than a new ‘number nine’.
These are still early days in Woltemade’s positional evolution on Tyneside. Having come on in a midfield position in the closing stages of the win at Tottenham, the Germany international started as a midfielder in the subsequent victories over Aston Villa and Qarabag. Not, according, to Eddie Howe, as a ‘number ten’. But as an orthodox midfielder, playing on the left of a midfield three in the Newcastle boss’ preferred 4-3-3 formation.
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When Joelinton first moved back into midfield, in an enforced change at the start of Howe’s reign when a red card for Ciaran Clark necessitated a major on-pitch reshuffle, no one had foreseen the Brazilian being so well-suited to a different position. The same is true of Woltemade. Yet on the admittedly limited evidence of the last two matches, maybe repositioning the 24-year-old will be the key to unlocking the abundant potential he undoubtedly possesses.
“We’ve done a lot of work with him in that position away from the game day, as much as we can with the limited training time that we have,” explained Howe. “I’m not saying that we’re not training, we’re just not training to the intense levels that we would if it was one game a week. But we are turning up and training, as we will today, and it’s what you do in that time that is the really important thing.
“Nick’s attitude to his work has been excellent. We’ve asked him to play a slightly different role, albeit it’s not a million miles from how we were playing with him as the number nine. He was coming low, he was coming deep, it’s just he’s slightly to one side now.
“I don’t see a big, massive issue here. He’s a player who plays better between the lines than stretching the line, I think that’s obvious. It’s more the defensive work that he has to grasp and what we then ask of him off the ball.
“Even as a number nine, leading the line, his off-the-ball performances were really good. Tactically, he’s a very intelligent player, he’s obviously been very well educated in his former clubs. He’s taken to it really quickly, and full compliments to him for being able to do that.”
According to Howe, the demands being made of Woltemade as a left-sided midfielder are not too different to what was being asked of him when he was leading the line earlier in the season. Even then, the Newcastle boss never regarded the summer signing from Stuttgart as an ‘orthodox number nine’.
“I don’t think it’s that different, personally,” said Howe. “Is there slightly more physical demand? Yes. But it’s slight. The thing with Nick, and we noticed this straight away from working with him, is that he’s got really good endurance levels. His ability to run and cover long distance is actually very high.
“I think he can do it. Of course, there’s things to learn, improve and develop within his game in that position, but I think he’s a versatile player.”
Woltemade played superbly in Wednesday’s win over Qarabag, pulling the strings as Newcastle ran riot in Baku, but that was against a side defending dreadfully, in a game where the Magpies dominated possession and were effectively able to do as they liked.
If Woltemade starts in midfield tomorrow against Manchester City, he will be asked to do a very different job, with the defensive side of his game being tested in a way it has not been in the last two games. Could he survive that type of examination, against one of the most effective attacking sides in world football?
“We will see,” said Howe, in a statement that suggests he is hardly shying away from the prospect of fielding Woltemade as a midfielder at the Etihad. “I’d say from what I’ve seen in training and the way that he’s taken to the work that we’ve done with him, I’d say yes.
“Of course, doing that is one environment is different to doing it on a matchday, with the pressure and the game and everything that entails. But I wouldn’t play him there if I didn’t think he could do it.”