‘A difficult period’ - Nick Woltemade honest about Newcastle United in World Cup interview
Nick Woltemade has reflected on a mixed debut season at Newcastle United as he aims to win the World Cup with Germany.
Nick Woltemade believes playing in the Premier League has as served the best possible preparation for Germany’s upcoming World Cup campaign.
And when reflecting honestly on his debut Newcastle United season, the £64million insisted he is “fine” despite suffering a "difficult" loss of form. Woltemade is one of seven - eight including Anthony Gordon - Toon stars selected to represent their country.
Malick Thiaw is also in the Germany squad, with the Toon duo hoping to lift the national spirits after two poor World Cup campaigns where they failed to get out of the group. A lot of the debate has centred around who to lead the line as Woltemade competes with Kai Havertz and in-form Stuttgart man Deniz Undav.
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Nick Woltemade reflects on Newcastle United season
Woltemade - who was top scorer at the under-21s Euros last summer - appeared nailed on to start the World Cup after an electric start on Tyneside. He netted four goals in his first five Premier League games.
However, as the season dragged on, his chances diminished, with Eddie Howe using him as a midfielder and as a No.10. He showed glimpses of quality as the campaign drew to a close and will be hoping to get a chance to impress in North America.
Speaking to CBS Sports, Woltemade gave an honest appraisal of his debut season on Tyneside. Staying positive, the 24-year-old is certain playing in the “hardest league” will help his World Cup chances.
“The best preparation you can have, I think, is the hardest league,” Woltemade said. “We play in the Champions League and every game (in the) Premier League. It can’t be harder, to be honest. Especially athletic-wise, it helped me a lot.
“You have to do more sprints, more duels and you have to be in the moment otherwise this league is so hard. It helped me a lot (for the World Cup) and also, I started with a lot of goals, I played really good games then there was a difficult period for me also.
“In the last few games, I was getting better. For my first season, I’m fine. I had some good scorers (goals), I had some good moments. You can see in my games that I have developed and I have the quality to be a good player in this league.”
‘We can go far’ - Nick Woltemade
Woltemade highlighted Germany’s quality - boasting talents like Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala - as proof they can challenge. He added: “(It is) the biggest stage you can play in the world. Everyone is watching. I’m really excited for it, especially in Germany where we have a really good history.
“The last two tournaments have not been so great for us and we want to do better. Of course, I’m really proud to be playing for a big country like Germany with a big history. We have some great players and I’m proud to play in my first World Cup.
“You can see with the quality of our team that we have good players. We know it’s a long way. I think, right now, in our environment, we keep it simple. We want to focus on the next game. If we have a good start, we can go really far.
“I don’t know how far we will go, but we have a good team with quality players. It’s a long tournament but I can say we are really well prepared.”
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