Joelinton has scored just one Premier League goal for Steve Bruce’s Newcastle United – but he needs service.
No team in the Premier League has scored fewer goals than Newcastle United this season. But that does not mean that the £40 million record signing Joelinton, for whom the number nine shirt appears to be becoming a millstone around his neck, deserves to suffer the brunt of the criticism.
Yes the Brazilian has found the net just once in his first nine top flight games for the Magpies but he cannot do it all himself. In total, Joelinton is averaging less than two shots a game at the moment, suggesting that the issue lies with the players behind him rather than the striker himself.
Miguel Almiron continues to dart aimlessly down cul-de-sacs, Allan Saint-Maximin has failed to make any sort of an impact due to injuries while Christian Atsu is, as every Newcastle fan is painfully aware, the very definition of average.
With these three tasked with supplying the ammunition, no wonder Joelinton is yet to hit the mark.
Fortunately, Newcastle have a silky Spaniard waiting in the wings with the kind of creativity and cutting edge that Atsu, Almiron and co seem incapable of providing.
As you might expect from a forward born in Barcelona, Victor is a forward who can leave defenders for dead with a subtle shimmy or a change of pace. After making a long-awaited return from a serious heel injury on Tuesday, the 21-year-old scored one and set up the other as Newcastle’s U23s outclassed bitter rivals Sunderland – leaving coach Neil Redfearn blown away.
“He was mercurial. In the first half he was unplayable, it was like tackling smoke,” the former Leeds boss told The Chronicle. “They couldn’t get near him.”
It would be unfair to expect a player who has never made a senior appearance to solve the lack of creativity in Steve Bruce’s struggling side but, in Victor, Newcastle might just have a player capable of giving Joelinton the service he’s craving.
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