Rooney bemused by ‘incredible’ Newcastle change as he lays into ‘sloppy’ Woltemade and Howe

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·24 de fevereiro de 2026

Rooney bemused by ‘incredible’ Newcastle change as he lays into ‘sloppy’ Woltemade and Howe

Before the game, Wayne Rooney described it as “a little bit of an issue”. During the first half, it had developed into enough of a problem for the pundit to deliver a rebuke roughly as long as the period in which Newcastle went two goals up.

There were 80 seconds between Sandro Tonali opening the scoring and Joelinton emphatically adding to it. Not including Gabby Logan-based stoppages, Rooney spent about 74 uninterrupted seconds joining Alan Shearer in laying into Nick Woltemade.

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“He’s obviously been asked to play in a midfield role, but from that midfield role you have to have that drive and desire to get forward into the box,” began the mildly furious Scouse narration of the opening 45 minutes’ highlights.

“Joelinton and Tonali have done it, they’ve both got the goals, but look at Woltemade here – no intention of getting in the box. “He’s with the two centre-backs. He’s playing just in front of the centre-backs. Ball goes out wide, again he’s not getting in the box. He’s in the lines. Poor touch, loses the ball. “Again, here, sloppy. He’s got good awareness but then gives the ball away. He’s just not used to playing in that position. Again here, in between the lines. Sloppy touch. Gives the ball away, and now Qarabag are on the break. “So he needs to play high up the pitch, and the one time he has gone high up the pitch he’s created a chance. This is where he’s effective.”

The filling to this particular sh*t sandwich was barely visible and surely not edible, but Woltemade’s work in playing in Jacob Murphy to fire wide did warrant a brief pause for credit as the game’s only genuine Champions League-worthy moment.

“Really good position, good footwork, good pass through to Murphy, and he should score. If he plays high up the pitch he will get more chances, he will create more chances.

“But what he’s doing now, he’s doing his teammates’ job,” Rooney continued. “He’s doing what the centre-backs should be doing. He’s dropping too deep. He’s not that player.

“I think he’s being asked to play in a No.8 role. So from that No.8 role you get forward, you get into the penalty box. He’s deeper than Joelinton and Tonali. I think that’s incredible.”

There is merit in tactical discussions about Newcastle, in nuanced, high-level debates over their formation, approach and ongoing transition from the peak that was last season.

But it is fundamentally hilarious to think that they have now spent £109m on two club-record signing forwards Eddie Howe has deemed it necessary to repurpose as midfielders while Will Osula toils up front and Newcastle score nine goals in a European knock-out tie yet still emerge with an air of negativity.

This game was rendered moot last week in Azerbaijan and by an early quickfire double which teased a rout of similar proportions at St James’ Park. But in conceding twice to a game Qarabag, Newcastle ensured this serene passage to the Champions League last 16 felt as hollow as possible.

Dan Burn has presumably had better evenings.

As long as their Alexander Isak replacement is deployed as a Joe Willock stand-in by a coach who would rather sacrifice Jason Tindall to the Saudi gods than play anything other than an absurdly crowbarred 4-3-3, that vague gloom will hang over a club which ought to be properly celebrating reaching a new continental milestone.