Nick Woltemade soaks up praise from Newcastle United hero after his debut goal on Saturday
A winning goal on your debut in front of your home fans - that's surely the dream of every striker, and that's exactly what Newcastle United's new club record signing Nick Woltemade achieved on Saturday against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Thrust into the starting lineup perhaps earlier than Eddie Howe would have liked, Woltemade seemed to take to the Premier League like a duck to water.
There was some apprehension from fans and pundits after watching the 6'6" forward in action for Germany that he's not quite at the standard Newcastle needs right now.
Those fears were banished on Saturday as, not only did Woltemade power home a superb header to bag his first Newcastle goal, but he also put in a quality performance all-round.
Alan Shearer was quick to dish out praise for Woltemade on Saturday
It was his goal that caught the eye of former Newcastle No. 9 Alan Shearer, who posted on X, "What a cross and an even better header". Wotlemade was asked how it felt to be acknowledged by Shearer, and the German gave a fantastic response (via Irish News).
“Of course he’s the legend. He scored a lot of goals and of course I’m happy about it.”
“I worked a lot on it the last weeks, the last months and the last year. With my height, I guess you have to. You can get more goals if you can have a good header.
“A header always feels good as a striker, especially if you work on it every week, so I was just happy when the ball was going in.”
Could we see the return of Little and Large forward lines?
Another Newcastle hero, Shay Given, spoke on Match of the Day about how Newcastle need to start firing crosses like that into the box more often to take full advantage of having Nick Woltemade to aim for.
It seems like a no-brainer. Niall Quinn and Kevin Philips, Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe ... Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa. The big man nodding down to the little man trope could make a comeback.
Of course, Eddie Howe is in no rush to change the system to accommodate two strikers, so we'll just have to hope that Woltemade keeps working on headed goals instead.
