Why don't Magpies use Woltemade properly?

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Come on now. Let's play our tall German man up front. The season is basically over. The stakes are reasonably low. Give it another chance?

Much is being made of Nick Woltemade and how he fits into Newcastle's system. That sort of chatter, I think, is all well and good if he was a sort of bargain bin find or an academy graduate or something, but we paid upwards of £70m for this guy less than a year ago. We did that for him to come to the club as a centre forward.

For some reason, Woltemade has split opinion - a little in the fanbase but more so in the local media. I can't really understand it. An argument is made that we aren't able to score goals, and that we lost that element of our game last year with Alexander Isak's departure. I'd hold that argument in a little more reverence if Woltemade hadn't scored about six goals in his first 10 games for us. He is a proven goalscorer for Newcastle United.

I would also give more space to this argument if things were going swimmingly for Newcastle United this season. But they are not. I understand that we have a type of football that we want to be playing; a high press, with intensity. OK - a noble aim. But if it isn't really working, and we've got some space to explore ways in which to make it work, including using the £70m centre forward as a centre forward and adjusting how we play to allow for his natural fluidity in that position, then I think there is an obligation to try.