OPINION
We are all well aware after all these years that the adaptation to the Premier League is arguably the most difficult one in all of football.
And so it’s not really fair to make judgements on new recruits after just five games of the new season, but it would be no surprise if the Newcastle United supporters were starting to worry about club record signing Joelinton.
That’s because Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield was another tough day at the office for the Brazilian. He really couldn’t get anything going, and his failure to open up passing lanes for the midfield was to the detriment of the Magpies.
With that last bit said, you can probably say that some of the Newcastle players are likely starting to get frustrated with the striker. He’s not quite shown himself to be former number nine Salomon Rondon yet, that’s for sure.
He did hold the ball up well, to be fair. As per The Chronicle, Joelinton won eight aerial balls against two giant centre backs in Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk.
There were some genuine causes for concern on Saturday, though. As per WhoScored.com, the 23-year-old was offside twice and had an unsuccessful touch against the Reds.
The big takeaway from this game from Joelinton’s perspective, though, was that he’s not making the right runs at the moment. That’s a hard thing to quantify, but it was abundantly obviously watching the game that he’s not stretching opposition defences enough. It was something that former England international Stuart Pearce picked up on numerous times on commentary for talkSPORT.
The former Hoffenheim man has scored just once in five games now, and simply cannot seem to create for his teammates or for himself as well as Rondon did last term.
Miguel Almiron, in particular, looked dismayed with Joelinton on a couple of occasions when he failed to make the run that the Paraguayan wanted.
Again, it’s still early days for the Brazilian, but it’s starting to become a bit of a concern that the £40million hasn’t caught fire yet.
