Nick Woltemade was the most-relieved man on the pitch when he ended his goalscoring drought in our 3-1 win over Aston Villa in Saturday’s FA Cup clash.
Capitalising on a terrible mistake from the Villa defence, ‘Big Nick’ was in the right place at the right time to grab our third of the night and his tenth in all competitions this campaign.
It capped off a notably improved performance from the German, as Eddie Howe deployed the 24-year-old in a deeper role, seeing him take up more of a No.10 role just beyond Jacob Ramsey and Sandro Tonali.
Howe has provided some fresh insight into this new role for Woltemade, revealing his hard work in training and ability to take up different positions on the pitch.
From the moment he signed from Stuttgart, there was much excitement about the prospect of Woltemade playing in more of a No.10 role, something that had been sorely missing from Howe’s system.
And whilst there’s still some tweaks to be added to Woltemade’s game, Howe has issued some huge praise for our £69m man, hailing his attitude in training and development in and out of possession after switching positions.
“His attitude to what we’ve been asking him to do in recent weeks, where we’ve been training him in a different position, has been outstanding.
“He’s done a lot of work, he’s done it really well and today (at Villa) he got the benefit of that.
“I thought he was very, very good in possession, out of possession, capped off with a great goal. I’m delighted for him and hopefully that just makes him feel really good about himself and what the future can look like for him here.”
Woltemade has previously shone in the No.9 role, enjoying a prolific start to the season before a recent slump that saw him go 14 games without a goal.
But, with creative spark Bruno Guimaraes now ruled out for eight to ten weeks, Howe was asked if the Brazilian’s injury could see the former Stuttgart star play in a deeper role more regularly.
“One of the reasons we wanted to sign him was his technical ability, added with a lot of other strengths that he’s got. So even when he was playing as a No.9 we were encouraging him to come deeper on the pitch.
“Today he started deeper on the pitch. I don’t think there’s a massive difference between the two, but when he’s playing and starting deeper, obviously there’s a bigger defensive responsibility and that’s where I have to give him particular praise because he understood what the team needed.
“He understood the importance of the defensive aspect and I thought he was outstanding today.”
Whether it’s a No.10 role that allows us to play in more of a 4-2-3-1 system, or we see our £69m signing play as more of an advanced No.8, allowing Howe to stick with a 4-3-3, it will be fascinating to see how the big man fits in over the final months of 2025/26.
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