Alan Shearer has been raving over the work rate of Newcastle United forward Joelinton but says he is under a lot of pressure to perform at St James’ Park.
The Magpies’ legend admitted that the decisions made in the summer to sell the club’s two top-scorers from last season, Ayoze Perez and Salomon Rondon, meant that the Brazilian had to hit the ground running.
Shearer did sympathise with the 23-year-old, claiming it is not his fault that he arrived in those circumstances, but did claim that he has missed some clear cut chances in the opening couple of months of the Premier League season.
“There’s a lot of pressure on him,” he told ESPN Brazil, as quoted by the Daily Star.
“Not his fault, because what happened to Newcastle last year, when they got rid of Rondon, they got rid of Perez,”
“Bringing him in for a lot of money, around about £40m. He had to hit the ground running, he had to score goals, almost straight away for Newcastle.”
“He’ll give Newcastle pace, works his socks off, I don’t think that’s an issue… but we’d love to see him score more goals. He’s got one, I’d love to see him score a few more.”
OPINION
It is hard to shower Joelinton in praise for his efforts since arriving in the North East, but Shearer has obviously tried his best to remain positive. When you splash out a club-record fee for a striker, the least you should expect from that player is goals, and the Brazilian simply hasn’t delivered that at St James’ Park this season. He did take his one goal very nicely against Tottenham, but he has missed a number of good chances since that goal, and Steve Bruce has every right to be slightly disappointed. Miguel Almiron hasn’t exactly helped matters alongside him though, with the Paraguayan international having not been involved in a single goal for the club since arriving in January. Newcastle have not been free-scoring so far, and have not scored more than one goal in a single game as of yet, and if that is to change, Joelinton must start finding his shooting boots in the final third for the Magpies.
