Alan Shearer believes Nick Woltemade has change into ‘a problem’ for Eddie Howe and feels the striker is ‘not suited’ to Newcastle United’s type of play.
Woltemade joined Newcastle in a £69 million deal from Bundesliga side Stuttgart last August off the back of a powerful campaign with Germany on the European Under-21 Championship where he scored six goals in five games.
The 24-year-old made a powerful start at Newcastle with five goals in his first 10 appearances, but his form has dipped over the winter period and he has found the online only once in 15 games in 2026.
Woltemade struggled to make an impact in Newcastle’s 2-1 defeat away to Manchester City on Saturday night and Shearer is worried over the striker’s suitability for Howe’s side.
‘Clearly Woltemade is a problem for Newcastle,’ Shearer told Premier League Productions.
‘Because the cash they spent on him, near enough £70m, then deciding to play Gordon as a centre-forward tells you he’s not quite been what they thought he might be in that position.
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‘They’re attempting to work out what’s best for him. Is he a No.10? Probably not. They fight and play him in additional of a midfield role, well, you see he can’t press, because he hasn’t got the legs, he hasn’t got the energy to do what Eddie Howe’s teams have done which have made Newcastle successful through the years. You saw that with the second [Manchester City] goal, when he goes to press he was beaten far too easily. He’s a problem for Newcastle.
‘It was at all times going to be a difficult situation due to Isak situation, due to what he did and what happened. It hasn’t worked well for anyone. It hasn’t worked well for Isak, it definitely hasn’t worked for Liverpool with him and from my perspective and from Newcastle’s perspective, it definitely didn’t help them because they were forced into paying, I feel, far an excessive amount of money for 2 forwards in Woltemade and [Yoane] Wissa, roughly around £125m on those two.
‘And so they’re still figuring out and determining the way to get one of the best of Woltemade because his game, his stature, his pace of play isn’t suited to what Newcastle have done in being successful under Eddie Howe with the energy.
‘When Newcastle were at their absolute best, Newcastle were going after teams and pressing and never giving them any time to play by any means, but he [Woltemade] can’t try this.
‘That tells you he’s [Howe] playing a winger in a centre-forward position that he has a problem in there.’
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