Nick Woltemade is short on confidence at Newcastle United and Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann is keen to ensure that changes ahead of the World Cup.
Though Kai Havertz may ultimately be the man to lead the line for Germany at the World Cup later this summer, Woltemade can still play a big role for his country after a difficult season for Newcastle United.
While things started well for him, Woltemade has proven inconsistent at Newcastle this season and hasn’t scored a Premier League goal in months.
Still, Nagelsmann brought him on for Havertz over the in-form Deniz Undav as Germany beat Switzerland 4-3 on Friday night.
After the game, Nagelsmann explained why.
Nagelsmann says he wants to give Woltemade confidence amid Newcastle struggles
The former Bayern Munich manager admitted overlooking Undav in favour of Woltemade was a bid to give the Toon forward some confidence.
In quotes sourced by leading German news outlet Kicker, he said: “Nick has a great scoring record with us, but he’s not having an easy time at Newcastle right now. So I have a choice: either give a top striker who’s in good form even more confidence, or let a top striker who’s not quite in such good form drop.
“You could ask a few psychologists what they think. Probably the opposite of what I’m saying.
“It’s advisable that Nick Woltemade gets back on track with us because things aren’t going 100 percent smoothly in Newcastle. Deniz is on a roll anyway – whether he plays today or not won’t change his confidence for this week.”
Germany are back in action on Tuesday night when they play Ghana – who England will meet at the World Cup later this summer – on Tuesday night in Stuttgart, the city in which Woltemade played before joining Newcastle in August.
Woltemade is set to change positions at Newcastle again imminently
The good news for Germany is that it seems like Woltemade will return to his central striking berth relatively soon.
The 24-year-old has been playing in midfield at times this season, an experiment that hasn’t really worked.
Quite why Eddie Howe decided to do that is unclear and it has split opinion among the fan base.
However, according to Sky Sports, Woltemade is likely to move back into his more familiar position now that Newcastle will be afforded more time on the training ground for the final few games of the season.
Germany will no doubt be delighted with that ahead of the World Cup. Hopefully, Woltemade’s difficult first season at Newcastle can yet end in positive fashion.