Eddie Howe has admitted his frustration at being forced to overuse Nick Woltemade during Newcastle United’s opening matches, with the £69million record signing pressed into action sooner than planned following
the late departure of Alexander Isak and the injury to Yoane Wissa.
Woltemade, 23, scored on his debut against Wolves but has since been asked to shoulder the bulk of Newcastle’s attacking workload, something Howe’s not too happy about..
Howe said the German forward was not ready for such heavy demands in the Premier League and warned that his adaptation must be managed carefully.
“I think Nick has made a really strong start,” Howe said. “He will improve the fitter he gets. That’s a huge thing. He’s come to us with not being used to the demands of Premier League football. This league is relentless physically and our schedule is relentless. A lot of what we’re doing with him in the short term is to try and keep him fit by not putting him in dangerous positions by playing too many successive 90 minutes too early.”
Howe admitted that losing Wissa immediately after his £55m move from Brentford left Newcastle with few alternatives. The DR Congo international sustained a knee injury on international duty before playing a single minute for his new club, leaving Woltemade as Howe’s only specialist striker, and won’t return until late October or early November.
“If Yoane was available now, he’d be allowing us to work with Nick’s fitness in between games and sharing some of the load,” Howe said. “It was huge. You go into the new season with your squad settled and you have a plan and then we didn’t even see Yoane. He’s come back injured and that was a difficult one. We knew Yoane was Premier League ready. Hopefully he’ll be back after the international break.”
Newcastle have scored only three league goals so far this season, underlining the pressure on Woltemade to adapt quickly and the huge expectations placed on him to carry the Magpies up the table and forward into the UCL and the domestic cups.
