Eddie Howe hailed an exciting start for Nick Woltemade after he scored his third Newcastle United goal in their 4-0 Champions League win over Union St. Gilloise.
Woltemade opened the scoring in Brussels when he cleverly flicked home Sandro Tonali’s effort from the edge of the area in the 17th minute.
A pair of Anthony Gordon penalties effectively sealed the game for Newcastle before Harvey Barnes rounded off an excellent counter as the Magpies claimed the biggest win in their Champions League history.
Bayern Munich board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge recently congratulated Stuttgart for finding an “idiot” to pay £69million for Woltemade.
Howe had branded the price tag “irrelevant” when asked about those comments before Wednesday’s clash.
After Newcastle’s first win of this season’s league phase, Howe was effusive in his praise for Woltemade, backing him to continue to ascend after finding the net in half of his appearances so far.
“His potential is high. There are certain things we want to get more from him,” said Howe.
“The physicality of the Premier League will insist he does certain things, the covering of big distances.
“You have to do be able to do that to be effective, the constant nature of the ball is not out of play a lot in the Premier League, it is relentless. You have to be able to maintain that intensity for long periods of time.
“I think his standout qualities are his technical ability and he looks like he has a knack for scoring goals, which is a great thing to have, and of course his height and his presence, which I think he can get better at the longer he is with us.
“I think it is an exciting start for him and he’s done really, really well, and more importantly, he is willing and he wants to do the work and he wants to improve.”
Woltemade had been prevented from taking the ball for Newcastle’s first spot-kick from Joelinton, with Howe confirming Gordon had been designated as Newcastle’s penalty taker for the season following the departure of Alexander Isak.
Howe, though, was delighted to see Woltemade keen to take the penalty.
“I love it! The best strikers I’ve worked with want to score. Even if there is a directive, they don’t care! They want to score,” he added.
“They want that responsibility. I’ve got no issue with that at all.”
