sport news Joelinton relishing his renaissance at Newcastle after Howe's midfield ... trends now
More than three years after his arrival at Newcastle United, not everything in Joelinton’s life is perfect. Some people, for example, are still getting his name wrong. It’s not just the pronunciation. It turns out everybody gets that wrong. But his actual name.
‘The way people say it, I don’t mind,’ Newcastle’s Brazilian explains to Sportsmail. ‘I am in England. I have to adapt to the fact people speak differently here. But I don’t like it when people separate it. Like at hotels and places. Lots of times. I am not Joe Linton. I am Joelinton.’
The 26-year-old delivers this story with a shrug of the shoulders and a smile. Still, it takes a moment to realise what he means, that sometimes he finds himself checked in to a hotel or welcomed to a restaurant reservation as Mr J. Linton. ‘Yes, that’s it,’ he laughs. ‘Joe Linton. I don’t like that bit so much.’
Joelinton is relishing his life in England - but people getting his name wrong understandably frustrates the Brazilian
On the scale of the things Joelinton has dealt with in England, this rates as an occasional pain. As for the serious stuff, the curve of his career continues upwards. But had it not been for something that happened at 7.39pm on Tuesday, November 30 last year, Joelinton may no longer be playing for Newcastle. Certainly there would be none of the cult hero status he now enjoys.
Had Newcastle defender Ciaran Clark not been sent off nine minutes into a home game with Norwich last season, there would have been no need for new manager Eddie Howe to move his big, struggling Brazilian centre forward back into midfield as part of an urgent reshuffle. As such there may have been no resurrection. One of the most remarkable recent stories of the Premier League may not have been written.
At the time, it was a tactical switch born of necessity. Eighty minutes is a long time with 10 men and it was a move that enabled Howe’s team to take a 1-1 draw. More significantly, though, it unlocked something in Joelinton that nobody in England had recognised. In a stroke his career was transformed and a life was changed.
The fateful night against Norwich when Joelinton was reborn as a combative midfielder
Eddie Howe's stroke of 'genius' to move him into midfield 10 months ago has turned him into something of a cult hero on Tyneside
Before that cold night at St James’ Park, Joelinton was a £40million record signing who was not up to it. In the two seasons or so he played as a central striker since arriving from Hoffenheim in Germany, he had scored seven goals in 81 Premier League appearances. When he did score —against Rochdale in the FA Cup in January 2020 — The Independent recorded it pithily. ‘Even Joelinton scored,’ it said.
Things were bad back then. Joelinton was living alone in a city apartment with only criticism for company. Steve Bruce’s Newcastle team was poor and Joelinton was its unfunniest joke. ‘I did think maybe this wasn’t my place and that I should go somewhere else,’ Joelinton nods. ‘Sometimes that’s the easy way. But you have to be resilient so I chose that. I am glad now that I did.’
Almost a year on from that night against Norwich, Joelinton is still in Howe’s midfield and flourishing. The club’s Player of the Season last year, he is now a fundamental part of Howe’s vision. Whether the Newcastle manager is a genius or just got lucky that night is up for debate. ‘He’s a genius, of course,’ laughs Joelinton. ‘He is to me, anyway.’ Would he have played me in midfield one day without what happened against Norwich?
‘When he came here he saw me train in different positions. So maybe he knew I could. But I have no idea. You will have to ask him.’ The story of Joelinton’s resurrection at Newcastle is more nuanced than previously portrayed. The first thing you notice up close is how big he is. He is a tall man with the thick, powerful build of a traditional English No 9 and maybe this is what confused Newcastle. For the man they broke the bank for in July 2019 was never really a centre forward at all.
Howe has previously praised the quality of the player and what he brings to the team
Joelinton had played the position as a youngster at Recife on Brazil’s north-east coast but only briefly. Under Julian Nagelsmann at Hoffenheim, he had played wide in a three-man attack or as a No 10. The records show he played as a through-the-middle lone striker in Germany precisely once.
Joelinton himself is slightly more generous. ‘I played that position three times,’ he says.
It is perhaps symptomatic of just how dysfunctional Newcastle were back then that a club often criticised for parsimony finally decided to pay all that money for a footballer who they then played completely out of position.
At Hoffenheim, Joelinton had been a fundamental part of Nagelsmann’s high press, eagerly hunting down the ball. Then, at Newcastle, he found himself one of the sole outlets for a team asked to defend deep by manager Bruce and play longer passes.
‘It wasn’t easy,’ reflects Joelinton. ‘This league is difficult anyway and the formation we played didn’t suit me. Of course, I accept some blame for not doing well. It wasn’t just the tactics.
‘But it wasn’t easy because of the way we played. I had that year at Hoffenheim with Julian in a very good formation and with a very clear game plan. That was very different from how it was here. I always preferred to have more freedom rather than just be the team’s reference point in the box.
The Englishman's revival of Joelinton's career at Newcastle has been one of the stories of recent Premier League history
‘But they bought me as a No 9 and I had to play there.
