Former Newcastle United forward Darren Huckerby has delivered a damning assessment of Joelinton’s time at St James’ Park following the forward’s performance in his side’s win against Newport County.
Newcastle delivered a below-par performance against Newport for most of their Carabao Cup tie on Wednesday evening, with the Magpies trailing at half time and requiring a quality late goal by Jonjo Shelvey to take the match to a penalty shootout. Bruce’s side eventually got themselves out of jail by knocking out their League Two opponents on penalties.
However, Joelinton, who came on as a substitute for Andy Carroll midway through the second period, once again came under the microscope as he saw his poorly struck penalty saved by Newport goalkeeper Nick Townsend.
The 24-year-old had managed to register his first two goals of the campaign in the previous round during Newcastle’s comfortable win against Morecambe, but the forward’s inability to take chances in front of goal, which plagued his first full season at St James’ Park last term, returned again in the shootout.
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Huckerby took to Twitter following the game to heap criticism on Joelinton, describing the striker as a “shambles signing.” The Magpies did spend a club-record fee of around £40 million in the summer of 2019, and the Brazilian only managed to register two goals and two assists in 38 Premier League matches in his first season (via Sofascore).
The forward’s habit of missing chances was demonstrated last campaign by him missing eight big chances in the Premier League, while he also only averaged one shot per match as well, (via Sofascore). The 24-year-old will need to move on swiftly from his miss in the shootout against Newport to get his form back on track.
Comments like the ones from Huckerby should provide motivation for Joelinton and fire him up to prove a few of his doubters wrong. There would have been obvious frustration at his penalty miss, but he showed during his display against Morecambe in the previous round that he is a better player when he has a bit of confidence.
Joelinton will be hoping to get a few more chances in the next few matches and he’ll need to take advantage of any game time that he gets so he can respond to his critics by putting in quality performances. As it stands, he’s done very little to give Huckerby, or any other of doubters, any reason to hold back on their criticism.
Geordies, was Huckerby right to make these comments? Comment with your views below!
