Stuttgart star Nick Woltemade is putting the ‘center’ back into forward

A mix between a no.10 and a no.9, Stuttgart's Nick Woltemade is one of the most unorthodox and increasingly in-demand player in the Bundesliga.

It isn’t easy to define Nick Woltemade. Standing tall at 198cm, it would be too easy to describe Woltemade as a typical no.9 based on his physical appearance alone. Indeed, when seeing the tall forward walk through the mixed zone, the automatic reflex is to compare him to old-school forwards of a bygone era.

With 12 goals in 24 games across all competitions, or a goal every 116 minutes, Woltemade is on an impressive goalscoring clip. Those numbers are even more remarkable when one considers that Woltemade often doesn’t even operate as a center-forward.

A good example is Stuttgart’s 4-3 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen ten days ago. Gegenpressing was on location for that game, and even though Woltemade was listed as a no.9, the forward operated more like a no.10.