Newcastle United reportedly invested £40m in signing Joelinton from 1899 Hoffenheim in 2019.
In his last season with the German club, the 26-year-old had 11 goals and nine assists. He has not managed to replicate the same form for the Magpies, but has been through an evolution.
Operating mainly as a forward, he managed 14 goals and eight assists from 115 matches in all competitions until the end of last term.
Eddie Howe has moved the Brazilian to midfield and he has been impressing for Newcastle. He now seems to have found his best position after playing higher up the pitch in the past.
Joelinton was at Hoffenheim between 2015 and 2019, and during his time there, he spent two seasons on loan at Rapid Vienna. Fredy Bickel was the latter’s managing director for most of the South American’s temporary stay in Austria.
Spox interviewed Bickel, where he suggested why it is best for Newcastle to field Joelinton in midfield rather than their attack.
“Actually, you could see right away that he had incredible potential. The big question even then was his position. We discussed: Is he a striker, a second striker or even an eight?” he said.
“There was a good saying from coach Goran Djuricin: ‘We have good strikers who don’t score’. That was related to Joelinton. He often attracted three opponents to help his team-mates.”
According to Spox, ‘not everyone saw’ these qualities of the player when he was at Rapid. This led to him failing to impress in the attack and resulted in ‘unpleasant’ criticism by a section of the Austrian club’s supporters on social media.
“It was unbelievable for me. He noticed that too. Joelinton is an incredibly nice, sensitive person. He was young, new to Vienna, ate a pizza too much here and there – it was difficult for him. But he wanted to get ahead, tried extremely hard to learn German, but also felt that the spectators never really appreciated him,” Bickel added.
Luckily for Newcastle, Howe has moved Joelinton to midfield and they seem to be now exploiting his best qualities.
