Eddie Howe believes his conversion of £69million striker Nick Woltemade to a midfielder should not harm his chances of going to the World Cup as Germany's No.9.
The 24-year-old has started the last three matches in a No.8 role as part of Howe's three-man midfield, with winger Anthony Gordon preferred in attack.
Woltemade had gone 14 games without scoring when used at centre-forward and found himself out of the team.
However, much like he did with misfiring frontman Joelinton four years ago, Howe has brought his club-record buy back into the engine-room, prompting an improvement in performance.
The concern for Woltemade may be how his positional change is perceived by Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann, who has used the former Stuttgart man to spearhead his frontline this season, leading to four goals from his eight caps.
But Howe said: 'The role isn't dissimilar to how Germany have used him anyway. They've played him as a No.9 and have asked him to come into lower positions. I don't think it's a big change and I'm sure their manager will look at it and go, "If he's doing well for Newcastle and he's playing minutes, then that's only going to help his cause". In terms of his Germany career, without speaking for Nick, I think him playing well in any position for us is only going to help supplement that.'
Eddie Howe insists Nick Woltemade's conversion into a midfielder should not harm his chances of going to the World Cup as Germany's No.9.
Woltemade has scored four goals in his eight appearances for the German national team.
'They know what he can do, coming through the youth system there. They'll have no doubts about his strengths and what he can offer the national team. I just hope that he continues to flourish in whatever position we play him.'
Woltemade has 10 goals for Newcastle this season but it would appear his immediate future will be in midfield.
'Even when he's playing as a No.9, as we used him, it wasn't to stretch the line,' said Howe, speaking ahead of Wednesday's Champions League second leg play-off tie against Qarabag, in which his side lead 6-1.
'The role was to come lower on the pitch. Nick is very happy playing the role that he has done the last few games, there's no fight with him on that. He's very much all in because he wants to showcase his best skills and his best skills are technically helping us link play. He does have a freedom on the ball to take up central positions and to drift to a degree across the pitch, so he's not in a stranglehold by the position in one place.'
'The future's exciting regardless of which position he plays in. The hardest season for any new player from a different country is always going to be the first one. Nick had a great start but there was always going to be a period where he found it difficult, where teams were desperate to stop him.'
'Nick was always in our thoughts as very much a deep-lying player, a deep-lying number nine. All his best work came from starting higher and coming lower. Now, just starting lower and staying in the middle line, I don't think is a great change. I've been very impressed with him.'