Scouting Nick Woltemade
Analysing the biomechanics of a 6'6" CF | Video and play-by-play breakdowns, deceleration and balance issues, ball-striking and toe-pokes, agility and dribbling, link-up play and selflessness
“If it's a good idea, do it today. Not tomorrow. A good idea rarely gets better over time."
If you think that quote is about seizing your opportunities by acting as they come, you’re wrong.
Larry Winget simply meant that if you’re a forward and get the ball in the box, you should shoot. Fast.
And then you have Nick Woltemade.
📚 Contents
Finishing
Data Corner
Connecting Play
Conclusion (and Bayern Munich)
Credits
Note for email readers: This email is truncated. To read the full article, please click on this link or the link to the right of [Message clipped] note at the bottom of this email.
Early Shots and Deceleration
Run boy run! This world is not made for YOU 🫵
Run boy run! They're trying to catch YOU 🫵
Woltemade can shoot the ball pretty quickly, and you want your CF triggering their shots early in the box.
He just needs to be in full control of his body when doing so, and at 6’6”, that’s not very easy to do. So he does what you do when you go bowling and don’t want to embarrass yourself: walk confidently as you’re planning to throw the ball with all the momentum you’ve built, only to stop short at the foul line because you're too scared to slip.
So Woltemade takes step after step to compose himself before finally getting a shot off, and while that has worked in the past, how often will he be afforded that kind of time and space?
This issue is helped by the fact that Woltemade is very nimble and always on his toes, meaning he can easily adapt + change direction—even with his lanky frame. But still, he needs to get his shots off earlier, and his shift-to-shoot ability HAS to improve. Until then, it’s a bit of a red flag when it comes to scalability across leagues.
Looking at this frame-by-frame:
This is also why Woltemade fluffs what should be simple shots from passes across goal:
Woltemade simply lacks balance. He’s falling across himself as he takes the shot, meaning it lacks any real power and should be easily saved.
He doesn’t face this issue when shooting from a self-generated chance, thanks to how well he sets himself up to shoot (at the cost of speed), but he could really benefit from using his frame better in associative play → shooting.
That said, this is a good finish. He finds space early, bends his run, and shoots without breaking stride. Proper CF stuff.
Ball-Striking and Variety of Finishes
Toe-pokes aren’t a bad thing.
And neither is the variety of finishes Woltemade is capable of producing. Ultimately, if he can catch goalkeepers by surprise, he can mitigate his deceleration problem. If decelerating awkwardly makes you predictable, having a million different finishes in your locker makes you incredibly difficult to stop.
But toe-pokes are especially nice. They’re efficient (reduced backlift—how can you even see the shot coming?), quick, powerful, and the extra reach gives you that little bit more room to stretch and shoot.
It’s smart but situational, innovative but repeatable. (If you want toe-pokes, take a look at Hugo Ekitike—but I digress.)
This is a pretty smart finish, too. Woltemade receives the ball in stride, sees no space at the near post, and is at a fairly awkward angle to thwack it into the far post—so he deftly [smartly] pats it onto the ground, well below the keeper’s hands.
Besides that, Woltemade has the basics down to a tee as well:
Woltemade receives the ball well, pirouettes like a ballerina (💃) with a bent-over upper body for a more stable base while fending off defenders, then uses a stiff arm for separation and high backlift to [disguise and] drive the ball into the ground with a LOT of power.
And speaking of receiving + cushioning the ball:
Being able to cushion the ball like that is a trait that’s pivotal when playing against high / lunge-y presses, and it makes the job of everyone around you that bit (🤏) easier. If your teammates know you can control overhit passes, they’re more likely to feed you—because at that point you’re like Oliver Twist as you ask for / can handle more—and your team’s overall chance creation goes way up.
Woltemade is also able to receive brilliantly on the half-turn, which worked especially well for Stuttgart given Millot’s creativity in and around the box, and Stiller pinging (and often overhitting) passes from all over the pitch.
This brings me to the sheer power Woltemade is able to generate seemingly out of nowhere:
I think Woltemade sometimes overthinks his shots, but when he does get one off, it’s usually struck pretty well.
His technique is textbook:
Woltemade to Shoot
Are these plots just an excuse for some terrible plot title names? No comment. And there’s worse coming up.
Woltemade is someone who gets a lot of touches in and around the penalty box before finally shooting. I don’t think that’s a major concern, because he’s inherently a touch-heavy CF, and it’s easily explainable for three reasons:
Deceleration issues
A preference to take an extra touch while dribbling (which is actually a good thing)
General body mechanics → height
Movement and Channel Running
Woltemade makes intelligent runs by hanging off the opposing CB’s shoulder, pinning them back in the process, and opening up space for a strike partner:
He does well to create separation—and go around the CBs—which opens up space for a carrier like Millot, or a line-breaking/pinged pass from deep (Stiller). From there, Woltemade rapidly eats up ground thanks to his long, gangly legs, often getting into 1v1 situations with the keeper. Here he can [sometimes] struggle with his initial few touches → changes of momentum, and frequently ends up having to go around the goalkeeper (not necessarily a bad thing).
What Woltemade does well, though, is consistently accessing defenders’ blind spots by creating angles effectively. From there, they don’t know when he’ll trigger his runs, so it becomes a simple matter of running in behind and laying the ball off / shooting it himself.
So I think the best way to maximise Woltemade is by pairing him with another CF / a 10, since a central attacking figure is most likely to both feed off the chances he creates through his movement + provide close-quarters creativity when he gets into the box → looks to shoot.
Here, Woltemade uses his frame smartly to run in behind. He stays crouched, making it harder for the defender to knock him off balance, then keeps a strong arm between himself and the defender’s upper body, maximising the distance between them.
From there, he uses his stiff(ish) arm to knock the defender off balance, giving himself time and space to run into—which helps mitigate his deceleration problem. Then his long legs carry him through on goal, before he bends his body over the ball to balance / compose himself before shooting..
Backlift. Trigger. Goal.
Woltemade also does well to find space in the box and connect cleanly with crosses.
Link-up Play
Look at the top right of this chart:
This is a very niche example from what is your usual basketball like u21 game, but Woltemade knows, at all times, where he is on the pitch and where the space lies. This sounds like quite a basic thing, but all of his [recent] playing time coming alongside another CF has definitely helped facilitate improvements in his link-up play. So just look at how well he’s disguised his pass here:
In that one moment before Woltemade passes the ball, he could play it into either of two dangerous areas (both of which he opened up himself by dropping deep). From there, he sees a CB sitting tight in the middle and opts to play it wide instead. So with that one move, he’s effectively isolated the entire left-hand side.
Woltemade’s link-up play also holds up well in the channels:
He bends his body, lowers his centre of gravity, uses his arms to hold off the defender—and keeps holding on like a mother clutching her child in a mall so he can’t run away. He invites the pressure onto himself and frees up space for an underlapping runner.
This next clip caught my eye for one reason in particular:
Woltemade gets his pass off quickly. He doesn’t awkwardly decelerate—he takes the ball in stride, sees the pass, and plays it immediately. It makes me think his deceleration issues when shooting have more to do with overthinking than with control of his frame, which is nice because it should be easily solvable with time.
Woltemaking Things Happen
Looking at the numbers, Woltemade averages 22.5 touches in the attacking third p90. That’s… a lot.
An xAG of 0.25 per 90 is frankly ridiculous for a striker. Woltemade is basically an outlier in most progression / carrying / creation metrics, and this hasn’t impacted his goalscoring game either.
Plus, the fact that Woltemade still ranks highly for progressive passes received p90 shows that his progressive passes are coming from high up the pitch and are actually making things happen. He doesn’t just drop into midfield, spray a few short passes, and call it a day. He actually progresses the ball.
The fact that he’s given the ball so often also shows just how much trust his teammates have in him. They know he’ll take the chances he gets, and that faith is a testament to a good striker. And like his passes, it isn’t misplaced.
Dribbling and Agility
Woltemade is 6'6" (or 198 cm, if that’s somehow more convenient). Nick Woltemadetootall, perhaps? No, because he dribbles like he’s 5'9", and I mean that in the best possible way.
I’ve said it before, but Woltemade can make the ball look like it’s glued to his feet. He uses his long legs and torso really well to shield the ball at speed here, and shows impressive tight-space manipulation for someone whose head is probably in a cloud somewhere.
Being able to carry at pace comes as a surprise given his height, but he’s happy to take an extra touch to give himself more time to assess situations. Again, this is atypical for a player like him—but it’s a good thing.
That’s a pretty solid technical floor for his profile (tall striker), which usually isn’t expected to have one.
My one criticism is that, on the ball, Woltemade’s long runs are predictably straight, with minor touches to weave. I don’t think he’s quite capable of long, winding carries yet, but that’s something I could see him adding as he grows into his body, so to speak.
Penalties
Woltemade’s penalties make me slightly… uneasy. He’s scored 15 out of 17, so he’s reliable enough, but just take a look at this:
That left foot is as planted on the pitch as Steven Gerrard’s was on April 27th, 2014.
Sure, if it works, it works—but it’s a bit odd seeing your star striker fall over every time he takes a penalty. In other words, his balance isn’t exactly ideal, but I suppose that’s one of the trade-offs of a [young] 6’6” frame.
To rehash some physics:
But again, if it works, it works. Just buy yourself a heart-rate monitor because you may well break some records here.
Conclusion (and Bayern Munich)
Right off the cuff, I think Woltemade would struggle if he moved abroad. On paper, his profile is excellent—a tall slab of meat who can dribble? Am I dreaming? Yes, because his deceleration problem is a bit of a red flag when attacking from deep.
Taking an extra touch is fine, but taking three, four, five? You’re getting smothered before you even have a chance to shoot. Yes, this issue is somewhat mitigated when he plays alongside another striker, since Woltemade has a simple lay-off option available to him. But if he’s playing as a striker who’s expected to drop deep [to link play] and isn’t surrounded by runners, he’ll struggle a bit.
In the box, he’s fine. He takes too many touches (such is his game), but his ball-striking is clean enough that the shot will at least hit the target.
But I think Woltemade would thrive at Bayern. He’d get to learn under Kane, play in a familiar environment, and wouldn’t be burdened by the expectation to start and perform week in, week out. While the lack of runners around him is a concern of mine, his play style is somewhat similar to Kane’s—and that’s worked out pretty well, so he should be okay in the short term [too].
Is Woltemade a €100m player? No. But €40m is a steal, and ~€50m is still worth it. You’re getting a unique profile who, once he grows into his own, could quite easily become the starting 9 for Germany’s biggest club.
Not today, but someday.
🎥 Credits
Thank you for reading—I hope you enjoyed this scouting report. If you’d like to support my work and see more of my writing, please consider subscribing. It’s free.
For psychology, economics, and the occasional musing, please considering checking out instinctively.substack.com (creative name, I know).
Here are the sources referenced in this article. All credit to the respective owners, and thank you for the outstanding work you do: Source 1, Source 2, Source 3.
Thank you, and have a great day.