To be clear, I think Woltemade is a crazy good player, and I believe that we will figure out how to play him and he’ll be prolific. But I need someone who agrees with how we’re trying to play him to explain the logic.
If you watch the highlight reel, how many goals are him getting on the end of balls being whipped in from wingers? 2? 3 at most. At least Wissa looks like he’s trying to get on them. Woltemade just doesn’t look like a clinical finisher that is gonna get on the end of balls from Murphy, Gordon, Barnes. I can see him being on the ball and playing a clever ball in the box, the odd header, maybe the odd goal, but not much more than that.
Now this isn’t a criticism, how many goals and assists in the highlight reel is he playing through middle from deep, linking up with other players and getting round defenders superbly? Tonnes. So why do we keep playing him up top and persistently seeing him struggle to make an impact? To me I don’t see a world where he’s thriving and there not being another striker on the pitch. Yet I’ve heard pundits, other folk, sounding convinced that he can play in the way we’re trying to.
The only answer I can understand is, “at the moment, these are the striking options we have and maybe if we keep playing him there he’ll adapt”. I’ve heard, “we should have him up top because of his link up play, because of his ability to hold up the ball”, but who are the players getting on the end of it? The goals need to come from somewhere, and for me if it isn’t our 9, I don’t see where else they’re gonna come from.
This isn’t a moan, I truly want to learn and hopefully I just don’t understand, but at the moment I am convinced we currently have 1 fit true 9 in the squad, and he’s struggling to get going after a knee injury.
by djw0bbl3
21 Comments
Cause Howe is set in his ways. Its literally down to him as a manager.
had a clear cut header today that he should have scored and then a harder one that he put just over the bar
he’s shown he can score already just fine, maybe we could look at the countless other players in the squad contributing absolutely fuck all?
Looks like we haven’t figured it out yet. Best games have been when players get up and support and run past him.
It’s going to take time on the training pitch, which we haven’t had enough of.
The patterns of play the team try to create just haven’t changed at all since he who must not be named left but Woltemade doesn’t have the same burst of speed needed to make it work.
You see it the most when Murphy blindly passes the ball inside to spin the fullback for a give and go but Woltemade isn’t as quick to catch it. Even if he does play the pass back then he can’t catch up with play again.
He gets the ball fired into him or just in his general direction with a defender already on his back and nobody near enough to take the ball off him.
He needs the ball into his feet and players nearby to lay it off but he isn’t getting anything. He tries so hard to press despite the pace issue and is obviously knackered by the time it gets to 70 minutes.
Because we’ve built a team of runners, for a manager who’s tactics rely on space to run into and plugged holes without any real care.
Because 4-4-3 and 4-4-3 only
At the end of the day, Woltemade wasn’t even our 5th choice striker so it’s clear that he was bought as a panic buy without considering whether he could fit into the team properly.
To be fair we had a lot of games where we were trying to play it through the middle for him, but people complained that we weren’t getting it out to the wingers and getting crosses in. Can’t win.
Howe is too stubborn
He excels with 1-2 passes and direct play through the midfield. All Newcastle are set up to do is go to the wingers and send a hopeful cross into the box. It’s killing the team now and other clubs have figured us out. 67% possession play today, 94% pass completion and 12 shots at goal yet utterly predicable to defend against and boring to watch with no definitive final finish. If they change tactics Bruno and him could destroy defences
It’s a simple case of Howe having no idea how to actually fit him into the team and we’re just playing the wrong system to suit him. He’s been poor lately but I’m not blaming him for that.
These types of questions come up and it’s always the same – when in the years Howe has managed us have you seen him any other way?
90% of the time its 433, Howe will play the same for the rest of his career.
The manager is one trick pony.
I don’t know why we stopped crossing over to him after the 2 headed chances. Not the first game where we’ve waited for Wissa to come on to start whipping it in again. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
He will not achieve his potential playing in this system, we’ll lose him and watch him achieve it elsewhere. He’s a unique talent that our manager cannot adapt his one-dimensional tactics to get the best from. Hoof the ball at his head and hope for the best.
He played as a 10 with Wissa up front for 70 minutes against Bournemouth in the cup (before Wissa came off) and was absolutely stone cold dogshit. When up front, I see more problems around him than with him but as time goes on it’s still an open question of whether he’s a Premier League striker at all.
He has decent touch when the ball is into his feet but he can’t hold off a defender, he can’t see a pass more than 5 yards away, and he loves to try a flick which is great when it comes off but just gifts possession when it doesn’t, and we’re a side that has a big weakness on the break. He lacks the pace and stamina to press effectively, and his tendency to drop deep and play with back to goal kills us positionally as it allows the opposition defence to press up.
He has an OK goal return but really toward the end of the season I’d have a serious look at a) what system is it that he flourishes in? b) can we and will we play that system? c) what will a Bayern or another club in another league pay for him? If there’s a more natural fit we can bring in we should.
I’m in the same boat mate I think we have an absolute unicorn on our hands but he’s being failed by our system.
Yep, look at his movement and positions in those clips. He’s not a target man, and he’s not a past the shoulder #9. Yet all we do is play balls over the top and send in crosses.
He needs people running off him to either score or link back up, but aside from Barnes all our wingers are shite right now.
Not to mention, no idea how well that style works against the low block we can’t break down, but maybe that’s more a midfield problem.
A flat 433 is the law. If Wolte can’t play to his best in it, then it’s all his fault and not Howe’s.
So many mangers seem to be stuck in their ways this season. It’s easy for opposing team’s analysts to figure out how to cancel out a teams strengths
Some of the goals on the video, he just doesn’t get anywhere near that much space in the Premier League. Hopefully he’ll adapt to the physicality and find his spots. He looks more decisive there too, sometimes for us he takes an extra touch