This nonsense completely ignores what both Yoane Wissa and Eddie Howe have said

Why doesn’t Eddie Howe give Yoane Wissa more of a chance?

Why didn’t Eddie Howe keep Nick Woltemade on at Old Trafford, when he brought Yoane Wissa off the bench?

Surely having both Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade on the pitch together against Manchester United in the closing stages was worth a try.

Why not give it a try Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa starting matches together?

I have seen all these questions getting posed by many Newcastle United fans, plus indeed many of those in the media.

The involvement of Yoane Wissa so far has been:

6 December and final 16 minutes off the bench of Newcastle 2 Burnley 1

10 December and brought on in added times of Bayer Leverkusen 2 Newcastle 2

14 December and brought on for final 15 minutes of Sunderland 1 Newcastle 0

17 December and played the first 72 minutes of Newcastle 2 Fulham 1

20 December and played the final 17 minutes of Newcastle 2 Chelsea 2

26 December and brought on for the final 22 minutes of Man U 1 Newcastle 0

Keith Downie of Sky Sports – Friday 24 October 2025:

‘Eddie Howe says Yoane Wissa is going to need a 6-week “pre-season” training regime when he returns from his knee injury.

Howe says that doesn’t mean he won’t play during that time, but patience is going to be required with the forward.

The 29-year-old saw a specialist for a check-up yesterday and is still on track to be back in the squad within the next two weeks.’

Yoane Wissa himself admitted less than a week ago in an interview with official club media – 26 December 2025:

“There’s more to come for sure…I’m not in a perfect peak yet. It is going to take a few weeks to build up and I know I have got a step to achieve. But I know who I am. I’m a hard worker. I love playing football. And yes, I hope I’m going to score many goals here. And I know I’m not one hundred per cent[yet], but there’s more to come for sure. I hope I score a lot of goals, a lot of assists and a lot of wins.”

Going back to the questions I listed at the very start of this article, of course we are all frustrated that Yoane Wissa hasn’t played more football for Newcastle United up to this point.

I would also say for sure, nobody will be more frustrated about this than Eddie Howe! Alexander Isak forced the need for a new centre-forward and quite obviously, Yoane Wissa was Howe’s choice to do that job, Premier League experienced over many seasons and playing a very similar role for Brentford last season, as Isak did for Newcastle. Wissa scoring more Premier League goals last season than any centre-forward who didn’t also take penalties.

I am also absolutely sure that Eddie Howe would love to see how Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade can link up together on the pitch, Big Nick a totally different type of striker to Wissa, somebody who made his name in Germany regularly dropping deep and not playing on the shoulder of the last defender to try and run in behind with pace.

It is fine to give fair criticism BUT it is total nonsense for fans and especially journalists, to go on as though this is a case of Eddie Howe simply choosing not to play Yoane Wissa more, choosing not to play Wissa with Woltemade.

Eddie Howe made clear back at the end of October, as reported by Sky Sports (see above), what would happen once Yoane Wissa was ready to join into the matchday squad. He stated that there would be a six week ‘pre-season’ and we would all have to be patient..

It is only 24 days since Yoane Wissa came back into the matchday squad and got those first minutes in the Burnley home match.

These last three and half weeks have witnessed us seeing exactly what Eddie Howe would be the case. Yet so many fans and journalists want to ignore this. The same with Wissa himself in that interview only days ago, saying he is still not one hundred per cent.

I thought it was ridiculous the blame that was attached by many to Eddie Howe for the devastating number of injuries that battered NUFC in the 2023/24 season, arguably the worst in the club’s history for injuries (on top of the Tonali suspension).

Now Eddie Howe getting stick for NOT taking risks that push it too far where players are concerned.

Performance Director

James Bunce was brought in after that 2023/24 season as Performance Director and a big part of his remit was reported to be trying to cut the number of serious injuries.

Eddie Howe clearly is getting the expert medical and recovery advice that is guiding what he does.

I see some fans saying you should just play your best team every match. That is just bizarre in my opinion, you can’t play all of your first choice players all of the time, if you are playing every three or four days.

As well as Yoane Wissa, Will Osula hasn’t been available as a starter for months, indeed, not even available as a sub for a couple of months now.

This has meant Nick Woltemade having to start pretty much every match.

I think we have been very lucky that he hasn’t got injured, having to do too much too soon in such a tough new league for him AND playing in Europe and domestic cups.

Eddie Howe has to look after our Germany international AND for the time being at least, the plan appears to be for Big Nick to give it his all for around 70 minutes and then Yoane Wissa is ok to play the rest of the match.

If you really think that Eddie Howe should be keeping Woltemade on for the full match and playing him with Wissa, you then also have to accept that you are going against all the medical/recovery advice that the NUFC Head Coach is for sure getting.

I am not saying Eddie Howe always gets every decision correct, but somebody has to be the grown up, somebody has to make these decisions on who is able to play and for how long. Eddie Howe is the person who has all the information as to the physical state of every player, fans and journalists are only guessing AND frequently wrong with their assumptions. For example, the likes of Joelinton, yes he was on the bench and not used for a number of matches but Eddie Howe later revealing that this was due to a groin issue and the midfielder only to come off the bench in an emergency.

If Nick Woltemade was asked to play too much and picked up an unnecessary long-term injury due to that, the same people demanding that he plays with Wissa would also be the first to slag off Eddie Howe for overplaying him.

Then if Wissa still not ready to start regularly, these same people would be then in total meltdown when Eddie Howe has no alternative but to play Gordon through the middle!

I think there are certain player selections up for debate currently BUT at the same time it is laughable for anybody not to accept that there also massive complications in key positions, where Eddie Howe is having to accept the medial/recovery advice on how much he can play certain players, especially when you have a match schedule of playing every three or four days.