Eddie Howe has some problems solving in Newcastle United. Ah, but he has already solved problems, smoothing the folds of his system each year, he was on Tyneside.
Last season, Howe led Newcastle as the Carabao Cup, their first great domestic honor since 1955. The Magpies also returned to the Champions League after finishing fifth in the Premier League.
Important days are coming. Newcastle is currently 15th in the Premier League with a victory for six attempts. The season is worth emphasizing, has just started, and the Magpies took a while to click on the game during the 2024/25 campaign, up a phenomenal series of winter form which led them on arrival.
Howe is entrusted to collect all of this, with the difficulties of the summer transfer window, defined by the move of the day limit of Alexander Isak in Liverpool for record costs of 125 million pounds Sterling, infiltrating in the season.
However, among the brightest sparks in Tyneside at the moment is Nick Woltemade, who replaced Isak in August and has strongly launched his career in black and white.
The beginning of Nick Woltemade’s life in Newcastle
When Woltemade landed for the first time in Newcastle, he entered large boots. Isak, after all, is widely considered one of the best attackers in Europe, with its transport of 27 goals last season a testimony of this.
But the German, signed by Stuttgart for a club record of 69 million pounds sterling, turned out to be promising during these first weeks. Marking the winner during his beginnings against Wolves and again against Arsenal on Sunday.
Number nine intelligent and technically gifted, Woltemade does not have the same catchy electric athletics as Isak, but it is skillful on the ball and followers in the link phases. It is an imposing presence in addition and a proper finisher of the ball.
With Yoane Wissa sidelines with a knee injury, the 23 -year -old jumped on the opportunity to submit his complaint for the departure place at the front of the ship, even by picking up the player of Newcastle for September.
The total of four goals from Newcastle on six Premier League appearances so far this season places them just at the bottom of the battery, alongside Aston Villa and Wolves.
At the corresponding stadium last year, they had scored eight goals, and the fact that it was an intermediate return in any case perhaps highlights the task that Howe has in the last third.
|
Premier League 25/26 – The lowest XG total |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Club |
Position |
xg |
|
Leeds |
12th |
5.9 |
|
Wolves |
20th |
5.5 |
|
Newcastle |
15th |
5.2 |
|
Aston Villa |
16th |
4.8 |
|
Burnley |
18th |
4.5 |
|
FBREF data |
||
Expected goals (XG) are a metric designed to measure the probability of a shot leading to a goal.
Woltemade, whatever, was a great signature. Its ceiling is high. In addition, Wissa has not yet touched the grass in black and white.
Newcastle’s thinnest summer signature
The central defense was an area that needed to strengthen when Newcastle entered the summer transfer window, but it was not until August that Howe claimed his career, welcoming Malick Thiaw from Italy.
Thiaw, 24, joined AC Milan in an agreement worth 35 million pounds sterling, and although his technical quality and his strong defensive competence have long suggested that there is a place for him in the Premier League, an injury record that leaves a lot to be desired as a warning.
But he looks like money so far. Thiaw, let’s not forget, has long been considered a higher talent, and in the past year, he ranks among the most main 7% of central defenders through Europe for the completion of passes and the most important 18% for progressive passes played by 90, according to Fbref.
A pass is considered to be progressive if the distance between the starting point and the following key is at least 10 meters closer to the goal of the opponent or any pass ended in the penalty zone.
The last-minute defeat against Arsenal on the weekend has bitten, but Thiaw’s performance was positive, the German chronicle granting the German a note of 8/10 after the match.
Thiaw, after all, supported his field against the best team of the Premier League, with Sofascore recording that he had eight authorizations and won five duels in the afternoon.
Alongside Sven Botman, Howe may well think that he has a new central defensive partnership to guide Newcastle in the next chapter, suitable to last and with the ability to challenge the greatest prices, against the greatest strikers that the Premier League and Europe can offer.
At only 35 million pounds sterling, it may well prove to be a flight to Newcastle. Thiaw has always been among the most talented of his age group, simply hampered in recent years by regular trips to the infirmary.
However, the first signs are promising in the Premier League. Thiaw was hailed as a “monster in the air” by journalist Martino Puccio, and with Fabian Schar and Dan Burn and Jamal Lascelles in the running to start their own place, Howe can afford a healthy rotation throughout the season while Newcastle rises to stay competitive on four fronts.
While Woltemade started on the right track while he is trying to gently replace Isak, it is not scandalous to say that it is not, and that a lot of work over several years must be completed before the tasty scorer reaches the same level of mastery and snap as his predecessor to St. James’ Park.
However, it is also fair to say that Thiaw has more exhaustiveness than Newcastle’s defensive harvesting, despite Botman, and that, for about half of the unpaid attacker’s price, he could prove to be the choice of the group when the Newcastle’s summer transfer window is assessing on a later date.
