Eddie Howe says he loves what he saw Nick Woltemade do to during Newcastle United's Champions League win last night
Nick Woltemade has already captured the hearts and minds of the Newcastle United faithful with his excellent displays for the club since his £69 million summer move.
The German has three goals in four games after scoring a delightful flicked goal in the Champions League last night against Union Saint-Gilloise.
It hasn't so much been the goals that have impressed the Toon Army, with many choosing to focus on his link-up play and close control. There was a prime example in yesterday's game when he picked up the ball on halfway, took on three Union players and then fed the ball to Anthony Elanga, who burst through for a shot on goal.
However, it was an off-the-ball incident that impressed Eddie Howe yesterday.
Nick Woltemade wanted to take the penalties taken by Anthony Gordon
Newcastle were awarded two penalties in the game, and Anthony Gordon stepped up to dispatch both superbly, but it could have been a different story as Nick Woltemade pleaded with the winger to let him take the spot kicks. Howe was asked about that after the game, with the manager saying he loved to see it.
“I love it! The best strikers I’ve worked with want to score. Even if there is a directive, they don’t care! They want to score. They want that responsibility. I’ve got no issue with that at all.
“But I think Anthony’s been practising them a lot. He’s been working very hard on his routine.
“You can see that he’s very focused. I was really pleased with how he took the two penalties.
“When you see someone as dedicated as he’s been towards that, I had no hesitation in giving him that role.”
Do we really want to hand penalty practice to the Germans in a World Cup year?
It would, of course, have been great to see Woltemade adding to his goal tally, but we can't complain with the outcome when Gordon put away both penalties so well.
Besides, in a World Cup year, do we really want to be handing German players a chance to practice spot kicks ahead of English players?
We do love the hunger from Woltemade, though; it shows that his head is in the right place and he's hungry for more.
