Paul Merson has been looking ahead to Newcastle’s weekend Premier League trip to Bournemouth, offering his weekly prediction and his thoughts on new striker Nick Woltemade.
In his Sportskeeda column, the Sky Sports pundit is backing this one to end all square between Eddie Howe and Andoni Iraola’s men, believing it will be a “good game to watch” with plenty of goals.
Bournemouth have got off to a flying start, playing good football and picking up nine points from a possible 12 so far, winning three on the spin since that opening day defeat at Liverpool.
Newcastle, however, have been lacking in the results department despite a few decent displays. After spending the first three games without a senior striker, the Magpies managed to get their first win of the season, beating Wolves 1-0 thanks to Nick Woltemade’s debut goal.
And on the subject of Woltemade, Merson has compared the big man to Peter Crouch, hailing his height and “brains”, also claiming he would be “shocked” if the 6ft 6″ German did not outscore Man Utd’s Benjamin Sesko this season:
“This will be a good game to watch. Bournemouth are flying and Newcastle got their first win last weekend.
“Nick Woltemade reminds me of Peter Crouch! He has a good brain, comes deep and gets people involved, that is literally the same way Crouch played.”
“My only demand is that Woltemade has to get back in the box a lot more. Sometimes, he just gets too involved in the build up. Based on what we’ve seen so far, you’d be shocked if Woltemade doesn’t score more goals than Sesko this season.”
“He has two wingers who will feed him so well, like they did in that win over Wolves. United, on the other hand, don’t have that type of wingers. Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo would rather have a crack at goal themselves than feed Sesko.”
“I expect an entertaining game with plenty of goals here, don’t miss this one!”
Prediction: Bournemouth 2-2 Newcastle
With Woltemade set to return to the side alongside Murphy, hopefully the pair can combine well once again and come away from the South Coast with a big result to keep the momentum going after last Saturday’s first win.
