Welcome to The Radar, a Sky Sports column in which Nick Wright uses a blend of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know stories from up and down the Premier League. This week:
💪 Woltemade’s strong start for Newcastle
🔹 Kostoulas being challenged by Hurzeler
🔍 A player to watch this weekend
Woltemade filling Isak void in his own way
Nick Woltemade scored his third header of the season in Newcastle’s Carabao Cup win over Spurs on Wednesday. The 6ft 6in striker is proving difficult to handle. And not just aerially.
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Newcastle boss Eddie Howe was full of praise for Woltemade on Friday
His tally of six goals in only 760 minutes includes two ingenious flicked finishes, one against Union Saint-Gilloise and an even better one against Brighton. There was a penalty lifted into the top corner against Nottingham Forest as if struck with a pitching wedge.
It is a fitting level of variety for a player who is difficult to define. Woltemade has the physical profile to play the role of a targetman. His presence has allowed Newcastle to send more passes long in line with the Premier League’s shift towards directness.
He has scored headed goals against Wolves and Arsenal as well Spurs. Not many strikers can claim to have bested Gabriel Magalhaes this season but Woltemade towered over him when scoring Newcastle’s opener against the Gunners in September.
As is becoming increasingly clear to his new audience, though, he is also an excellent technician capable of a light touch as well as brute force. He is comfortable holding onto the ball in tight spaces. He drops deep and pulls wide to link the play. He can even dribble.
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Watch Woltemade’s stunning flicked finish against Brighton
His team-mates certainly value his all-round contribution. “He is so big, it is a little bit easy for him to score goals with his head but he is a very good player,” said Sandro Tonali after the Spurs game.
“He runs all 90 minutes every time. He plays with us, the midfielders and the defenders. He is the first defender and the first striker.” Eddie Howe added that he “set the tone” for Newcastle’s pressing.
He is already loved by Newcastle supporters. His arrival, for £69m from Stuttgart in the summer, having previously been a target for Bayern Munich, has helped to ensure that, so far, at least, the departed Alexander Isak has not been missed.
It has escaped nobody’s attention that Woltemade has comprehensively outperformed his predecessor, who is yet to score in the Premier League for Liverpool, his only goal since his record £125m transfer coming in the Carabao Cup against Southampton.
Yoane Wissa’s injury absence has added to the pressure on Woltemade to perform and he continues to deliver. He has more Premier League goals, with four, than any of the 18 other strikers signed by Premier League clubs during a summer transfer window which featured unprecedented spending on forwards.
It is all the more impressive given he has played fewer minutes than many of the other players in the list, including all of Chelsea’s Joao Pedro, Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres, Liverpool’s Hugo Ekitike and Manchester United’s Benjamin Sesko.
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Woltemade’s audacious penalty against Nottingham Forest went viral
He is of course a different type of player to the man he has replaced. He is not generating as many shots or creating as many chances as Isak last term but he offers an aerial outlet, wins more duels, makes more pressures and regains possession more frequently.
His heat map shows a broader remit.
While Isak was focused on stretching opposition defences with runs in behind, Woltemade is more likely to be seen further away from goal, helping to construct attacks as well as finish them.
Woltemade is still acclimatising to certain aspects of the Premier League. Issa Diop and Calvin Bassey subjected him to rough treatment which often went unpunished against Fulham last weekend, much to the striker’s frustration.
But overall the speed of his adaptation has been hugely impressive. His challenge now is just to continue in the same vein.
So, is his current scoring rate sustainable? Woltemade has scored four goals from four shots on target in the Premier League. Factor in his goals in the Champions League and Carabao Cup and, amazingly, it is six from six shots on target overall.
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Woltemade scored his sixth goal of the season in the Carabao Cup win over Spurs
He has reached that tally from chances worth only 3.46 expected goals, an overperformance which suggests a reversion to the mean may lie ahead. And yet, his actual goal total could easily be higher.
Woltemade hit the post from close range in last weekend’s 2-1 win over Fulham and struck the underside of the crossbar in the game against Nottingham Forest, during which he also had a goalbound effort blocked by defender Morata inside the six-yard box.
He is defying the data, then, as well as conventional definitions. And Newcastle’s trip to the London Stadium, live on Sky Sports on Sunday, to face a West Ham side who cannot defend crosses or corners, looks like a good one for him to pick up another goal.
Sunday 2nd November 1:00pm
Kick off 2:00pm
Newcastle may ultimately need to service him with more scoring opportunities. They will need their wingers to contribute more goals too, with Jacob Murphy, Harvey Barnes, Anthony Gordon and Anthony Elanga having only found the net once in the Premier League between them so far this season.
But in Woltemade right now, they have a player giving them exactly what they need, filling an Isak-shaped void, contributing a lot more than just goals, and, two months into the season, winning the battle of the Premier League’s new No 9s.
Hurzeler pushing Kostoulas
From Newcastle to Brighton, where it has been a slower start for Charalampos Kostoulas, another of the Premier League’s newly-signed strikers having joined from Olympiakos for £31.4m in June.
The 18-year-old came with a reputation as one of Europe’s most exciting young frontmen and finally earned a first start in Brighton’s Carabao Cup tie against Arsenal on Wednesday having scored his first goal from the bench against Manchester United.
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Charalampos Kostoulas scored his first goal for Brighton against Manchester United
Unfortunately for him, it did not last long.
Kostoulas looked menacing from the left flank in the first half at the Emirates Stadium but he was withdrawn at the interval with Fabian Hurzeler citing “physical reasons” afterwards.
“He needs to adapt to the intensity of the Premier League, he needs to adapt to the demands,” said the Brighton boss.
Hurzeler was complimentary of the youngster’s performance. “He played very well,” he said. But his ruthlessness in taking him off called to mind his comments on Carlos Baleba last week, when he offered Sky Sports an insight into his man-management techniques.
Fabian Hurzeler is pushing Kostoulas to try to get the best out of him
The 32-year-old talked up the importance of “honest feedback” having been firm with Baleba over his performances following a summer of transfer speculation. Hurzeler has taken him off at half-time on three separate occasions this season. “Carlos won’t get better if he only gets compliments and claps from outside,” he said.
Clearly, Hurzeler is pushing Kostoulas in the same way. And even if it feels uncomfortable, the striker should keep in mind that his team-mate appears to have benefitted. Baleba was Brighton’s best performer against Arsenal, dominating the midfield in the first half and demonstrating the potential Hurzeler is trying to extract.
Player Radar: Who else to keep an eye on
No Dean Huijsen, no problem for Bournemouth. They have another young gem at centre-back in Veljko Milosavljevic.
The 18-year-old Serb is pushing to face Erling Haaland and Manchester City on Super Sunday having helped Bournemouth keep a clean sheet against Nottingham Forest last time out.
Live Radar: What’s on Sky this weekend?
On Saturday Night Football, it’s Tottenham against Chelsea, live on Sky Sports Premier League and Main Event from 5pm ahead of the 5.30pm kick-off.
On Super Sunday, West Ham host Newcastle in the earlier kick-off, with coverage starting on Sky Sports Premier League and Main Event from 12.30pm ahead of the 2pm kick-off, before Man City’s clash with Bournemouth at 4.30pm.
Sunderland host Everton on Monday Night Football. Tune in from 6.30pm ahead of the 8pm kick-off.
Read the last Radar column
Joao Palhinha, Rodrigo Bentancur and Tottenham’s issues playing through midfield featured in last week’s column. There was also a look at Bruno Fernandes’ stunning record for Man Utd ahead of his 300th appearance.
