Chronicle journalist Lee Ryder has praised new Newcastle United signing Joelinton after his full debut against Hibernian, but has suggested that the striker can be “selfish”.
The Brazilian opened his account in black and white on Tuesday night, scoring the equaliser as the Toon Army came from behind to beat their Scottish opponents 3-1.
And reflecting on the match, Ryder was quick to deliver his verdict on the 22-year-old.
As reported by the Chronicle (9.45), he said: “Joelinton, finishing well for his first goal. Big, strong performance from him.
“We’ve seen some interesting moments, we’ve seen that he can be selfish in the area. He also was probably a little bit too unselfish at one stage when he should have shot, but he squared it to [Isaac] Hayden who made a bit of a hash of it.
“But overall, he looked really good.”
OPINION
This sounds promising from Ryder. Newcastle need a goalscorer, pure and simple – somebody who can get themselves into the box, get their head down, and find the back of the net 20 times a season. On the early evidence, Joelinton could well be that man. His average of two shots per game in the Bundesliga last year, as well as 1.5 key passes, and 1.7 successful dribbles [Whoscored] shows that he is a player with enough about him to seriously troubles defences, and if he can continue to find the back of the net like he did against Hibs on Tuesday then the Toon Army will be laughing. Ryder does suggest that Joelinton was a tad selfish, but that isn’t always a bad thing in a forward, and as long as he’s scoring goals on the regular then he can be as single-minded as he likes up on Tyneside.
