The Nick Woltemade problem and Eddie Howe’s challenge to save Newcastle’s struggling season | OneFootball

There are plenty of barometers of the Premier League’s strength. One of the more ridiculous is to say the sixth-best team in Europe are only the 14th finest in England. It can be a quirk of autumnal tables: with trips to Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain to come, Newcastle may not finish sixth in the initial phase of the Champions League, even if an Aston Villa-style surge to the quarter-finals does not seem utterly implausible. Nor, in all probability, will a side who finished fifth in England last season end up quite as low. There are precedents for their initial stumbles: Newcastle were 12th in early December in 2024. They showed a slow start can be no impediment to Champions League qualification.

And yet these are unusually troubled times on Tyneside. Newcastle could cite the fixture list, with six away games in their first 11, with the two home defeats to last season’s top two, each coming cruelly late in injury time after spirited showings. Yet more recent memories are of strangely supine performances at West Ham and Brentford, twice leading and yet losing 3-1. They beat Athletic Bilbao in between and have booked another Carabao Cup quarter-final place but it has nevertheless entered the ranks of the worrying starts.

There is a £125m mitigating factor. Perhaps Alexander Isak’s ability to destabilise seasons extends from Tyneside to Merseyside via Sweden. Certainly, his absence is reflected in Newcastle’s meagre return of 11 goals in 11 games; two seasons ago, they only finished seventh but still struck 85 times in 38.

Given the struggle of others to score, Nick Woltemade’s return of four is encouraging; less so is the reality that he has only had four shots on target in the Premier League. The £69m club record buy has the makings of both a cult hero and a very good signing, but Newcastle are having teething trouble in their attempts to recalibrate around the German beanpole, to shape a side around a striker who lacks pace. Yoane Wissa, who might have been an overpriced but Premier League-ready spearhead, still has not played and is unlikely to debut against Manchester City on Saturday.

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Newcastle are still learning to link with Nick Woltemade (Getty)

A bigger problem than Woltemade may be the wingers. Anthony Elanga has flattered to deceive; the £52m recruit’s best display came against Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League, while he has lost his place to the eternally unglamorous but more productive Jacob Murphy. Anthony Gordon has gone half a top-flight season, some 19 games, without a goal or an assist; he is only one behind Harry Kane, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe in the Champions League scoring charts, but that is less useful when the opponents are West Ham and when he has been profligate, sent off and suspended in the Premier League. Harvey Barnes at least scored at Brentford, but Eddie Howe has lacked a front three that has worked together; in England, anyway.

Go back a couple of months and he had a midfield trio that could be described as the best in the division; certainly in their combination of bruising physicality and technical skill. Yet now it is tempting to wonder if they need to be broken up. Joelinton, in particular, has had a poor campaign. Bruno Guimaraes has been the best of the trio but he, Joelinton and Sandro Tonali have not had the same chemistry. That Jacob Ramsey is a second big signing who has been sidelined has not helped.

But after spending £250m – even though half of that was recouped on one player alone – only Woltemade and Malick Thiaw look close to being successes so far. Howe’s recruitment was long criticised for being too focused on Brits; two Germans, like Isak, Tonali and Guimaraes before them, are antidotes to that. In Thiaw and Sven Botman, Newcastle could have a long-term centre-back partnership; that regeneration may be welcome as they have the fourth-oldest average starting 11 this season.

Yet if Dan Burn was only ever an auxiliary left-back because of injuries, given his greater suitability for the centre, his shortcomings on the flank were exposed with his red card at Brentford. His suspension might be a boon of sorts if it gets Lewis Hall back into the team. Newcastle could have their full-backs for the future, in Hall and Tino Livramento, but each has been sidelined. Yet, across the team, transition to that future has been an awkward process.

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Anthony Gordon is struggling to find form in the Premier League (AFP/Getty)

And they have had issues in each department of the side. Nick Pope began the season with a series of saves and clean sheets. Errors in the last two league games could afford Aaron Ramsdale a chance on Saturday; alternatively, concussion may force the issue. But Howe faces a familiar dilemma: continuity or change, the players who have served him well in the past or the ones who may be less culpable for Newcastle slipping to 14th.

A feature of Howe’s management, like David Moyes in his initial era at Everton, is a track record of turning things around. Newcastle had a losing run at the end of 2023. They were mired in the wrong half of the table 11 months ago. History suggests they can respond; so, too, a squad with potential but in need of a winning formula. Yet while Newcastle have four home games before Christmas, three are against England’s Champions League representatives, and, in his managerial career, he has two points from a possible 54 against City.

A team who have won away in Belgium but not England this season go to Everton, Sunderland and Manchester United, with only two home defeats between them. The easy part is noting that Newcastle could go on a charge up the table. The harder bit is working out if they will and which of Howe’s new-look squad are best equipped to do it.