Tribal Football

Howe rejects claims Newcastle's Woltemade role hurting Germany World Cup hopes

Howe rejects claims Newcastle's Woltemade role hurting Germany World Cup hopes
Howe rejects claims Newcastle's Woltemade role hurting Germany World Cup hopesREUTERS

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has defended playing Nick Woltemade in midfield.

It's been suggested Howe has put Woltemade's World Cup selection hopes with Germany in jeopardy by dropping the striker back into midfield.

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But Howe said: "The role isn’t dissimilar to how Germany have used him anyway. They’ve played him as a No.9 and have asked him to come into lower positions.

"I don’t think it’s a big change and I’m sure their manager will look at it and go, 'If he’s doing well for Newcastle and he’s playing minutes, then that’s only going to help his cause'.

"In terms of his Germany career, without speaking for Nick, I think him playing well in any position for us is only going to help supplement that.

"They know what he can do, coming through the youth system there. They’ll have no doubts about his strengths and what he can offer the national team. I just hope that he continues to flourish in whatever position we play him."

 

Always a deeper-type

Howe also explained: "Even when he's playing as a No.9, as we used him, it wasn't to stretch the line.

"The role was to come lower on the pitch. Nick is very happy playing the role that he has done the last few games, there’s no fight with him on that. He's very much all in because he wants to showcase his best skills and his best skills are technically helping us link play. He does have a freedom on the ball to take up central positions and to drift to a degree across the pitch, so he’s not in a stranglehold by the position in one place.

"The future's exciting regardless of which position he plays in. The hardest season for any new player from a different country is always going to be the first one. Nick had a great start but there was always going to be a period where he found it difficult, where teams were desperate to stop him.

"Nick was always in our thoughts as very much a deep-lying player, a deep-lying number nine. All his best work came from starting higher and coming lower. Now, just starting lower and staying in the middle line, I don’t think is a great change. I’ve been very impressed with him."

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