Tag Archives: joelinton

Premier League Game of the Week: Newcastle 3-4 Manchester City

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There have been some brilliant games over the past week but nothing was quite like the game at St James’ Park where Manchester City were seemingly going to walk away with all 3 points without much fuss. In the end the newly crowned champions did have to work very hard for their victory in a game that witnessed 7 goals as Pep Guardiola’s team won 4-3.

The day of course belonged to Manchester City as they were crowned Premier League champions a few days earlier as Manchester United put out a weakened side against Leicester and lost that game, that gave City the title. So this was a game of celebration and it really lived up to that.

The game though belonged to Ferran Torres the 21 year old is going to be something else that is for sure and he scored a fantastic hat trick to seal a game that could have been lost or perhaps drawn at one point.

The first of what would be seven goals was scored by Newcastle through Emil Krafth after a corner and he headed it into the goal. But City would soon be level though not through the usual suspects, no this was from a shot by Joao Cancelo of all players, although in truth his effort did take a deflection.

There would be much excitement as the first half rounded up and Ferran Torres scored his first goal of the game to put City 2-1 up via a cheeky back heel. However there had to be a VAR review just to make sure someone’s shirt, nose or hair wasn’t offside, but the goal was rightly given. Newcastle though were not finished and soon got a penalty which Joelinton converted in a rare moment of glory for the Brazilian striker. The first half ended 2-2 and you could just tell that there would be more goals in this game.

This really was a game full of excitement and incident and on the hour mark Newcastle were awarded another penalty. Joseph Willock who has been in great form for the Magpies missed his initial penalty but was on hand for the rebound and tucked it away and the home side were now 3-2 up!

City as the new champions are simply relentless as we know and just two minutes after Newcastle had taken the lead, Torres had made it 3-3 after a great assist from Gabriel Jesus. Torres wasn’t finished and completed his hat trick just 120 seconds later for 3-4 and that is how this crazy but wonderful game ended.

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3 reasons why Steve Bruce is failing at Newcastle United

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Newcastle United are among the favourites to be relegated this season, this after finishing 13th with 44 points last season. The drop off has been significant and it seems that manager Steve Bruce is hitting a wall.

Bruce’s appointment did not go down well with fans of the club but he did seem to punch above his weight and only finished last season 1 point behind the total that Rafa Benitez had achieved the season before. That was an eyeopener in many ways and there was a belief that Bruce could do well at the club. Owner Mike Ashley saw Bruce’s appointment as a win-win situation given that Bruce was a long standing fan of the club and that Benitez was always asking for reinforcements, Ashley knew that Bruce wouldn’t ask so many questions and just get on with the job.

But this season Bruce’s Newcastle have been exposed and with just 9 games left to play for them they are only 2 points from the drop and in 17th place. The Magpies recent defeat to Brighton was huge. If the 3-0 score line wasn’t enough Brighton were a direct rival for survival and Graham Potter’s side have now moved 4 points clear of Newcastle.

So what has gone wrong with Newcastle, where Fulham could catch them and send the Magpies down, let’s take a look.

Joe Linton

It doesn’t seem fair to blame one player for a teams failings and let’s make it clear Newcastle as a team are failing. But when a club are not getting the wins and not scoring goals eyes will always fall to who is up front. In this case the Magpies have Joelinton a player who broke the clubs transfer record for £40m.

Joelinton has been, up until now, one of the poorest signings in Premier League history. He has scored 3 league goals in 59 games for the club and seven overall from 70. Indeed since starting his career back in 2014 Joelinton has only scored 26 league goals overall. When Newcastle have needed the goals to make that difference Joelinton has been wanting on too many occasions.

The Graeme Jones factor

Newcastle needed to be shaken up and in January Steve Bruce brought in Graeme Jones who had worked previously with the Belgian national side and also Bournemouth as his assistant manager. Jones got to it and changed up tactics within the team and prepared them for the Everton game at the end of January. It is thought that Bruce wasn’t the happiest person at the club that Jones had stepped in in this way. However Newcastle played one of their best games of the season to beat Everton 2-0.

Since then Bruce has taken some of that power back and although it hasn’t been confirmed it’s possible that the two are not seeing eye to eye. Bruce is stubborn and playing his way and he is letting that blind him in how the club must make advancements.

Luck has run out

Every club needs some luck along the way but under Bruce Newcastle have had some decisions go there way and have been able to not play very well but escape with a last minute win or get a draw.

Take the Leeds United match earlier this season, true Leeds ran out 5-2 winners but at one stage Newcastle were well in the game and it was 2-2. However the club had been very poor that day and Leeds would have been wondering how the score line was so close. On that day Newcastle didn’t get away with it.

But how about even earlier in the season when Tottenham completely outplayed Bruce’s team and yet in the 90th minute the score was just 1-0 to Jose Mourinho’s team. Very late on in injury time Newcastle who had been very poor throughout the game were awarded a penalty, from which they scored from- and it was a disputed one at that. The penalty which ended the game at 1-1 was the clubs only shot on target the whole game.

It just seems that especially since the New Year that Newcastle’s luck has run out. Could they go down? The answer is a yes given their second half to the season form where from a possible 45 points they have earned just 10 and won just two times, scoring just 11 goals in that time. Judging on the last 15 games Newcastle would be in 19th place and have earned 2 points less than Championship bound Sheffield United which just underlines how problematic the clubs decline has been.

It looks like that final place will go down to the wire between Fulham and Newcastle, and it will be fascinating to see how this one plays out. As for Steve Bruce he will most certainly lose his job if the club are relegated but if they stay up, even by finishing in 17th place you get the feeling that his close friend and club owner Mike Ashley will be more than happy to keep Bruce on the payroll, at the dismay of the fans.

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Joelinton’s lack of goals are stopping Newcastle from claiming a European spot

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As long as Newcastle keep doing what they are doing they won’t go down and would have had a decent enough season if unspectacular under manager and life long fan Steve Bruce.

However one cannot get away from the fact that the Magpies should be doing so much better, a top 7 team at least and trying to qualify for the Europa League. Of course you win, lose and draw as a team and no one wants to directly point the finger at one individual. But having said that surely there was more expected of Brazilian striker Joelinton?

Joelinton came in a flurry of media frenzy up in Newcastle, he’s South American and that brought back memories of the very entertaining if not volatile Faustino Asprillia, revered up here. It’s strange to think that Joelinton actually started the season well. He showed good speed, some technical skills and just when the fans were thinking ‘where are the goals’, he goes and gets the winner away to Tottenham of all teams- the same club that made the 2019 Champions League final. Not too bad.

But six months into the season he can be judged as a failure. That doesn’t mean his time in England is doomed, maybe he just needs readjustment to a different country and culture. Maybe his 2nd season will be HIS one. For now scoring just 1 goal this season is an utterly poor return on a player who cost Newcastle £40m last summer.

Maybe the problem lies though not so much with the player but with Newcastle and his former club Hoffenheim, after all it was the two parties who came to the agreement of £40m. That in itself isn’t a problem until you see the players stats.

For example he has never scored more than 8 league goals in a season and when he did it was for Austrian side Rapid Wien when he was on loan. One can imagine with all respect that football in the Austrian league is not of the highest standard. Even for Hoffenheim he managed just 7 goals in 29 league games. Plus why did no one at Newcastle see the alarm bells ringing given that Hoffenheim who had rated the striker so highly felt the need to loan him out to an Austrian league side?

So far he has 26 league goals in 7 seasons and that just won’t cut it. One doubts that he will suddenly become a star striker at 24 next season, and Newcastle fans can genuinely wonder why their manager did not look at buying another striker in the January transfer window. Had Joelinton scored for example another 10 goals, Newcastle would be in a great position now, instead this season as well as the player looks like a write off.

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