· 28 October 2025, 17:00
Newcastle United seemingly hit the jackpot this summer when they signed Nick Woltemade from VfB Stuttgart.
Eyebrows were rightfully raised when Newcastle broke their transfer record to sign the 6’6″ German striker who has only really had a year playing at the top level, but the risk already seems to be paying off.
Everybody expected that it would take Nick Woltemade some time to settle into life in the Premier League, but that wasn’t a luxury Newcastle could afford after Yoane Wissa picked up an injury on international duty.
Thankfully, Nick Woltemade wasted no time getting accustomed to the Premier League, and the 23-year-old has four goals in the competition already, and is wowing spectators with his close control and link-up play with the Toon attack.
Eddie Howe says Nick Woltemade needs to learn how to handle different situations
Premier League defenders are still trying to work him out, and referees are also seemingly bemused on how to properly look after the striker who isn’t one to drop to the floor in order to sell a foul, which has seen a few decisions not given. There were a couple against Fulham at the weekend, and Eddie Howe acknowledged that in his press conference on Tuesday.
“There were one or two, looking at the weekend, that I think were fouls that weren’t given.
“I think that’s fair to say and I think Nick felt the same way. But I think Nick is going to have to come up against all sorts of different challenges from defenders, however they see best to defend against him.
“Some might go aggressive, some might go a little bit more withdrawn and he needs to find a solution to figure out how best to play against that, and we’ll help him with that.
“I think he’s going to face a lot of different challenges this season because it’s all new to him, but I think that will be a learning experience, the Fulham game, for him.”
We’re not saying cheat, but maybe emphasise the fouls more
We don’t want to encourage cheating, obviously, there’s enough of that in the game as is, but Big Nick needs to think about how he absorbs fouls and maybe, just maybe, he should consider trying to sell them more.
As for working out how to play up against different types of defenders, that’s definitely up to Eddie Howe and his coaching staff to work out.
For now, we’re happy with what Woltemade is doing, and we love seeing defenders struggling to contain him.
