It is very common for new signings to be called ‘the next big thing’ before they’ve even done anything. It happens all the time – a player scores one goal or has one good game and their stock in the media completely takes off. And the same can be said of the inverse. Florian Wirtz’ stock is currently taking a beating because he hasn’t quickly adapted to the Premier League in the way many thought he would. But with Nick Woltemade, I’m not so infatuated with the debut itself – but more so what the debut confirmed. I think there are some underlying traits that are seriously promising and could take Newcastle to even greater heights than they’ve already reached.
For many Newcastle fans, this past summer was likely the most eventful and emotionally taxing they had ever seen. They did good business in July by signing Anthony Elanga for £55 million. They also brought in Malick Thiaw, who has been dubbed ‘a modern defensive hybrid’ by pundits, from AC Milan for £34.6 million. And although their squad from last season was very strong and they won their first trophy in 70 years by beating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, fans were very underwhelmed with their activity in the window.
They did say goodbye to Callum Wilson and Sean Longstaff in this window, as they moved to West Ham and Leeds respectively but the big story this summer was the Alexander Isak saga. With Liverpool beginning the window by signing Newcastle’s top target Hugo Ekitike and then agreeing personal terms for Isak to join too – Newcastle’s transfer plans were in disarray.
So, with fans unhappy about Isak’s desire to move to Liverpool along with the club’s apparent lack of urgency to find a replacement for a player who seemed destined to leave, the entire ordeal was incredibly infuriating for fans. Following such a historic season, the last thing they would have wanted was for their best player to leave and move to a Premier League rival and be left with no one to replace him.
Ultimately, the saga came to a close in the dying days of the window as Newcastle shocked everyone by signing German international Nick Woltemade from Stuttgart for a club record £69 million. No rumours, no reported interest, just a transfer agreed and a new no.9 on his way to Tyneside. This allowed Newcastle to reluctantly sanction the transfer of Isak to Liverpool for a British record £125 million.
But Newcastle fans should be excited about their new striker. Woltemade is just 23 years old and at 6″6 feet tall, he profiles as an incredibly intriguing prospect. I watched all 62 minutes of his Premier League debut just to assess his performance and was thoroughly impressed. He possesses some qualities that will serve Newcastle in ways that even Isak was unable to. That is not to say that he is a better player than Isak, but maybe he could become a better fit for this Newcastle team after a season or two.
As these charts show, the main difference between Isak and Woltemade is in their styles of play. Isak is a traditional no.9 at heart, which can be seen in his 90th percentile non-penalty goals and xG. However, he also possesses qualities that allow him to be proficient with the ball at his feet in wide areas too – as we saw during his tremendous solo run against Everton before assisting Jacob Murphy’s goal in 2022/23 and his 93rd percentile successful take-ons and progressive carries. Isak is a hot commodity in that sense – he is a true no.9 but he is also technically skilled enough to be involved in build-up if his team requires it.
Woltemade however is more of a 9.5 than a 9 or 10 as the heat map above indicates. Where Isak spends much of his time in and around the box, Woltemade ventures out into midfield areas very often. The German International may spend time with is back to goal, pinning an opposing centre-back, looking for the ball to feet. But he will also drop further than his fellow attackers into the midfield looking to link up with his midfield teammates. This was a common theme in his debut; he spent the early parts of the game with his back to Wolves’ defenders but as he grew into the game he was more willing to drop in and link play. He was especially proficient at playing quickly and with one touch which is a promising sign for Newcastle as it indicates that it is an inherent skill and not one that he will need time to develop.
And this hybrid nature of his is what I think might be the most valuable to Newcastle in the coming seasons. They undoubtably have one of the best outright squads in the Premier League. Their midfield three of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali, and Joelinton might just be the best in the league and their wingers Elanga, Gordon, Murphy, and Barnes are all top quality too. I think if Eddie How can leverage Woltemade’s best underlying qualities, he can make all of his teammates even better than they already are in a way Isak did not. Isak was so good that it was the goal of the team to feed him chances, but since Woltemade is not that lethal striker type and is more of a facilitator himself, Howe would do well to leverage those qualities to improve the players around him.
Woltemade only registered 3 assists in 33 games last season which you could see as reason to disagree with me but his 94th percentile expected assists tells another story. This indicates that Woltemade gets his teammates into good positions to score more than almost every striker in the world but those teammates just didn’t finish the chances last season. Compared to Isak’s 71st percentile expected assists, Newcastle fans have reason to believe that their current players will look even better than they already have due to the addition of Woltemade.
But at the end of the day, the primary job of a striker is to score goals and in Newcastle’s team that is no different. Woltemade scoring in his first game is what will catch the headlines and what he does in build-up will only become mainstream after the media catches on and he develops that Firmino or Havertz-type reputation. The fact is that Woltemade is a terrific goalscorer too. The goal he scored is exhibit A. A header fading away from goal, with very subtle late movement to offset the defender and give himself more space to finish – a real striker’s goal. The stats back this up; he scored 17 goals in those 33 games last season and his 86th percentile non-penalty goals show that he knows how to score.
Interestingly, he performed just above average at generating non-penalty xG (68th percentile) but was considerably above average when it came to scoring non-penalty goals, which would indicate that he has a knack for scoring even if the chances are not the easiest. The header he scored on the weekend was definitely not easy and registered at a measly 0.09 xG.
At 6″6, Woltemade is also a potentially elite off-ball presence. Against Wolves, he was a willing presser and was unfazed when called into duels and the stats show that he is much more effective than Isak defensively. Where Isak only ranked as high as the 44th percentile in defensive metrics, Woltemade ranks as highly as the 97th (% of dribblers tackled) and 96th percentile (blocks). For Eddie Howe this gives him greater freedom to give Woltemade license to natuarally drop into the midfield as he has shown that he can be an effective contributor defensively. This could allow Newcastle to experiment with more strategically and means he can add to what is probably the most physically imposing midfield three (Guimaraes, Tonali, and Joelinton) in the Premier League to cause teams considerable problems in the middle of the park.
All things considered, Nick Woltemade’s Newcastle debut was a flash of what we and Newcastle fans in particular can come to expect from him but there is even more under the surface that might take this team to heights that they didn’t get to reach when Alexander Isak was their talisman. So, to Newcastle fans, you have good reason to be excited about your new main man and the future of your team too.
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