Joelinton-Bruce’s square peg
“He is brave. He’s not your typical Brazilian where he’s all silky skills, but he’s man-made to play in England. He’ll improve, he’s only young. I’m delighted with his workrate and attitude. He’s different class.”
This is what Steve Bruce had to say about Joelinton after his side beat St. Etienne 2–1 at St James Park in pre-season.
The Brazilian forward was brought to Tyneside from Hoffenheim for about £40m. A huge transfer for Newcastle whose transfer record before 2019 was £16m in 2005 for Michael Owen.
With such a large fee there was big expectation for Joelinton. The 23 year old stands at 6'1" with a big frame. Having watched quite a bit of Newcastle this season and from Bruce’s comments above, Bruce sees him as a target man who they can launch balls towards all game. Newcastle attempt 58 long passes per game, the 8th most in the league. Joelinton himself has won the second most headers in the league.
Having a look at Joelinton’s stats, he’s only scored once and assisted another. He takes just 1.8 shots per 90 and has a combined expected goals and assists per 90 of 0.23. This isn’t what you want from your striker in a team whose wingers have just one goal between them, and that was Saint-Maximin against Sheffield United, which I’m watching as I write this.
Joelinton is a good player. It’s understandable for Newcastle fans to be annoyed and think he’s not good enough when he isn’t producing goals. On Twitter and at St James’ Park you can hear a lot of complaints about him, the high exceptions of a big money Brazilian plays into this.
At Hoffenheim, Joelinton played 2149 minutes, scoring 7 and assisting another 5. Producing 0.37 xG and 0.22 xG per 90 with 2.4 shots. He was playing under Julian Nagelsmann, a young progressive manager with a high press. Joelinton played in front threes or twos and even as a 10 behind two strikers three times. Never as a lone forward and quite often as an inside forward in a front three. And never as a lone target man.
His main strengths are: high pressing, dropping deep and between the lines to play the ball and linkup play.
He’s not a traditional target man like Rondon, Andy Carroll and Sam Vokes. And shouldn’t be treated as one by Bruce. Newcastle are having an above average season and are doing well one the whole even if they have the 3rd least goals in the league. They’re beating Sheffield United (2nd best defence in the league) 2–0 as I write this. So, although if you’re Bruce you don’t want to change the formula of a 541 low block just to accommodate for Joelinton.
But, you have to question why he was signed in the first place. It’s a big investment into a player who isn’t suited to the style you want to play. Joelinton does his best with what he’s given, he works hard but recieves no service or support all game. He receives a lot of stick when honestly I don’t know what he can be expected to do a lot of the time.
He’s a strong player who could be very interesting in the right system. Unfortunately this isn’t at Bruce’s Newcastle. He’s a player I really like and would like to see succeed, so it’s frustrating to see fans turn on him when he isn’t really the right player for them.
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