With the Women’s Super League on a two-week break, Sky Sports columnist Laura Hunter covers the talking points from the latest Premier League action, including Nick Woltemade’s eye-catching performance at Newcastle and the familiar issues at Tottenham.
Woltemade debunks a Premier League myth.
Moving from the Bundesliga to the Premier League is a great way to go. There have been other high-profile changes this summer. Florian Wirtz, Jeremy Frimpong and Hugo Ekitiche joined Liverpool, Benjamin Cesco moved to Manchester United and Xabi Simmons moved to Tottenham. These are all large amounts.
But it is Newcastle forward Nick Woltemade who has made his adaptation seem the most natural. In just seven weeks he was the toast of the Toon, demolishing the theory that a ‘transition period’ was needed for players arriving from Germany.
The 6-foot-6, 23-year-old didn’t need most of the warnings that Wirtz and Sesko provided. He just started doing it. In the Premier League, he became only the third German player to score on debut, joining Jurgen Klinsmann and Ilkay Gundogan in an elite but small group of compatriots.
Nick Woltemade scored Germany’s first goal in a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland.
He has since scored four more goals in all competitions. Including his contributions in Germany, he scored five times.
In fact, Woltemade mocked a number of existing tags earlier this season. “The players are looking for me,” he said at the weekend. It’s easy to see why. The tall target man with a soft touch is a rare commodity in modern football, much less conspicuous than traditional types.
Newcastle may have ultimately lost to Brighton on Saturday, but it was a hint of unique intelligence that Waltemaid’s stunning backheel flick brought them level. His personality as a No 9/No 10 hybrid makes him difficult to track. Eddie Howe said: “Nick has done really well. We are delighted with him, but more is needed from the rest of the team.”
Nick Woltemade has proven successful since joining Newcastle in the summer.
Newcastle had failed to score in each of their last four Premier League away games until Waltemaeide’s performance at the Amex. And as a team, only Nottingham Forest, Wolves and Leeds have had a lower conversion rate (7.3%) this season. Wolte bucks the trend himself (36.4%). His goals-to-minutes ratio is second only to Erling Haaland. But as Howe admits, he needs more help.
Nonetheless, his understanding with Anthony Gordon shows promise and positives should be taken from his willingness to accept a leading role so early in his Newcastle career. He rarely appears upset. The scope of his talents is also deceptive. He can drop deep and act as a bounce player while also revealing himself to be an agile finisher.
He may not have been brought in as a direct replacement for Alexander Isak, who has yet to score for Liverpool, but Waltemaeid is filling the void brilliantly and proving that the need for a so-called transition period is nothing more than a myth.
Tottenham was out of breath at home.
Thomas Frank hit a stumbling block. The problem is not necessarily one of the person’s own making, but a problem that the person must fix. Since the start of last season, Tottenham have lost more points than any other team in the Premier League (19) at home.
They have lost five times since leading in that time, which is also the best record in the league.
Tottenham were unable to translate their impressive away form into their home games.
Tottenham will move into second place with a win over Aston Villa on Sunday, and third with a draw. Instead, they find themselves in the sixth. In many ways, there has been notable progress following last season’s fiasco. But those who pay to watch from the terrace of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have the right to disagree. Based on home performance alone, Spurs would be 17th.
So why is performance so diminished in familiar environments? It is clear from open play that Frank’s team lack cohesion and this is frustrating the home crowd. The weekend open play xG was a pitiful 0.16. They had a set-piece threat, but summer arrivals Mohammed Kudus and Simons struggled to combine effectively with Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel.
Tottenham is first on the away scorecard, but 17th when measured by points gained at home.
Tel’s scoring was predictable and most of the time he did not receive the ball. Simons failed to gain momentum. Kudus has been a bright spark since joining from West Ham, but even centre-back Micky van de Ven posed more of an xG threat against Villa. Kudus actually produced 0.
Every forward hit either went half a yard out or seemed completely wrong. Spurs were flagged for offside a total of six times. That’s more than any other team through eight weeks.
Unai Emery rather butted heads after the game. “We adapted to everything tactically,” he said. And Villa played with the anxiety that has come to define the game in this part of north London.
When Tottenham let go of a lead, they also tend to let go of their advantage. Frank’s biggest problem is making sure that the habits inherited from the Ange Postecoglou era do not become characteristic of the era he is responsible for.
Deforestation reveals a bigger problem
Nottingham Forest are set to appoint their third manager of the season with only October left. It’s a sad indictment of how far the club has fallen in a few short months. The highs and lows of football have rarely been more clearly summarized.
The exact date when this incredible downfall began is difficult to pin down. Was it the first week of the season that former manager Nuno Espirito Santo publicly labeled his squad “unbalanced” and called it a “major problem”? Was it 24 days after he was fired? Or is it better summed up by Ange Postecoglou’s disastrous 39-day reign?
It’s hard to say. But what is very clear is how poor Forest have been on and off the pitch. All this chaos has clearly unsettled the players and removed the stability they used to make an impressive push in Europe last season.
Forest have failed to score in three consecutive home league games for the first time since October 1998. Saturday marked the first time since returning to the Premier League in 2022 that the side produced an xG value of 2 (2.35) and failed to score. The upheaval has uprooted everything that was good about Forest under Nuno. They have slipped 11 places in the leaderboard between May and now.
Nottingham Forest’s attack has failed this season
In retrospect, perhaps even Evangelos Marinakis can admit that it was a mistake to hire a manager (the most successful manager in the club’s recent history) whose style of play was antithetical to the previous regime.
Postecoglou was the first manager since Sean Dyche at Burnley in 2014 to see his team score just one goal in their first five Premier League games in charge. Marinakis may not be interested in that information, as he enlisted Dyche directly to execute the transition. He becomes the ninth forester in eight years.
This soap opera style of club management is not sustainable. Sure, blame can be shared, but really the only way to alleviate that chaos is to quiet the noise by winning a football game. Forest were on the brink of relegation with the worst attacking record in the league and the second worst defensive record.
Dyche’s job is so huge that he can’t afford to make mistakes.
