Nick Woltemade
Newcastle, United Kingdom – 10 21 2025: Jacob Murphy and Nick Woltemade seen during Champions League league phase game between Newcastle United FC and SL Benfica
Nick Woltemade has pushed back at growing criticism, insisting his form is being misread because he is no longer playing as a striker.
The 22-year-old striker has been speaking to SueddeutscheZeitung, who asked him about his current dip in form at St James Park.
He exploded into the Premier League with a run of goals that instantly made him a fan favourite.
While other big signings were struggling elsewhere, he looked ready made for the Premier League. Then the goals slowed, and the questions started. Speaking about that now, he rejects the idea of him having “lost the thread”.
“I don’t see this as negatively as it is seen from the outside, for me that’s still a normal process,” he said.
“Of course, you could look at it from the outside and say: He only scored a goal in the new year, what’s wrong with that? But who really knows my games, knows why that is.”
A completely different Newcastle United role
Pressed on what has changed, Nick Woltemade explained that he has been deployed far from the penalty area. Newcastle now often use him as a midfielder.
“I’m playing at a very different position than I did at the start of the season,” he added.
“In the game against Chelsea recently, I played some kind of man-to-man coverage against Cole Palmer in midfield, and he’s an offensive ten. You can imagine in which areas I was traveling in the field.
“I know that you connect me with goals, but you can’t compare the goal percentage of a striker to that of a midfielder who plays 50, 60, 70 metres from the opposing goal.
“I’m a completely different Nick Woltemade at the moment when I was at the start of the season. At the moment, I would have to be rated more by how I lead my duels or secure the spaces.”
Broken rhythm for Nick Woltemade
Nick Woltemade is happy to accept that the goals have slowed, but he isn’t too concerned. He instead insists that the shift is part of his ongoing Newcastle United development.
“I score a lot less goals, of course,” he said.
“But I’m completely relaxed, I don’t think it’s bad to expand my repertoire. That’s the job I’ve just got, and I’m trying to master that. And I am convinced that it will make me stronger in the long run, if I also learn to deal with such phases.”
He is also pushing back at suggestions of a crisis of form. He instead believes that any critics aren’t watching Newcastle regularly.
“Annoyance may be too much, but it bothers me. I am playing half left or half right in a five-man midfield at the moment and would like to be judged by this profile. If someone insinuates a form crisis, I would just say that he doesn’t see many games of Newcastle United.”
Eddie Howe not the problem
The striker is also willing to back his manager. Eddie Howe has faces criticism for his use of the striker and deploying him deeper. There have been suggestions that he simply doesn’t fancy his big summer signing.
Nick Woltemade doesn’t like that suggestion, though, given it worked well at the beginning of the season.
“I don’t think you can say that. In the first few months it worked well with me in attack,” he argued, when asked straight if he just doesn’t fit Howe’s tactics.
Instead, Woltemade believes that other factors, such as injuries, have forced Howe into a reshuffle to try and make things fit.
“Several things have come together. First Bruno Guimaraes is out, our playmaker, and then a few other midfielders. We are not an individual athlete, but a team. It is normal that you have to help out as a player at other positions,” he concluded.
“I played a position further back, and I think I did quite well there. In any case, the coach was satisfied with me. At the same time he may have wished for a little more depth in the attack centre. Of course, a player like Anthony Gordon can give us that.”
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