As Newcastle United’s bleach-blonde Brazilian duo eventually ambled off the City Ground pitch, all smug and satisfied, one made a final half-turn to acknowledge the several thousand-strong gaggle of admirers still belting out his name. The other played both conductor and lead singer, waving his arms and joining in merrily.
“He’s Brazilian; he only cost £40 million,” mouthed a grinning Bruno Guimaraes. “We think he’s f***ing brilliant; he’s Joelinton.” To earn his praise, Joelinton had put in the type of performance that has become typical during much of Eddie Howe’s three years as Newcastle's manager.
Feisty. Tenacious. Laced with anger. By scoring his side’s second, the one that nudged them in front during a big come-from-behind away victory, Joelinton had added a layer of sweet buttercream
A pure blend of power and bend
His goal came from a Newcastle counter. Again, typical. Sandro Tonali to Alex Isak to Joelinton, and suddenly the Brazilian was driving into space towards the right. Tino Livramento zipped past on the overlap to leave Forest left-back Alex Moreno stuck bang in the middle of nowhere. Joelinton cut inside, the ball there to be hit by his left foot.
Few expected him to shoot, and, of those who did, few believed they would see the net bulge. Howe was crouched in the technical area, perfectly placed, only for a set of legs obscuring his view at the critical second. The strike was pure, a blend of power and bend. Clink: in off the far post. Newcastle’s bench sprung up in unison and supporters danced in dizzying delight.
Joelinton’s rebirth is not a new tale, but it is always worth a re-read. A flailing, failing £40 million number nine, unwanted, unloved, unable to outmuscle a newborn. The butt of much Geordie joshing. And then, entirely accidentally, all by dint of Ciaran Clark’s brain fade at home to Norwich, an almost instantaneous morphing into one of the top-flight’s most physically dominant, most irreplaceable midfielders.
In recent weeks, Joelinton has returned to an attacking outpost. A conundrum facing Howe for a while has been how to fit both Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes, both preferers of the left flank, into the same XI.
Yet in the previous three matches – all Newcastle wins - Joelinton has interchanged with Joe Willock in the left eight and left winger spots. That combination worked so well two seasons back when Newcastle qualified for the Champions League, and it has brought balance and ballast.
At Forest, Joelinton started on the left but switched to the right - a position he has rarely occupied since Howe’s first game in charge (Brentford, 3-3, November 2021 for those who cannot immediately recall it) – before half-time. Why? Howe wanted Gordon more involved.
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Howe values versatility in a footballer, and that is perhaps why Barnes – who came on late and added Newcastle’s third in exactly the way you’d imagine Barnes would – struggles for a regular starting spot. He does one thing. He does it blooming’ well, and that is not to be sniffed at. But one needs more to be a Howe regular.
"He's like gold dust," said Howe, speaking to SkySports Emma Saunders. "You know wherever you put him, he will do a good job. His attitude never changes. He's playing in different positions because we utilise him there in games and he has to do the training, and he never flickers. He will do whatever the team needs him to do.”
On Joelinton’s improvement in the past three seasons, Howe added in his post-match press conference. “He’s just turned into a beast. A machine. He’s someone you put on the pitch, and you know what you’re going to get, regardless of the position. He has those mental qualities that he wants to win everything he does. He will try his best. But I want more from him. I think he can get more goals.”
And so, a week that began most concluding that Joelinton had solved a riddle few realised required solving on one side, ends with the suggestion that he could be the man to end the issues on the other. The right forward position is - and has been for years – a Newcastle weakness.
The latest international break comes at an inopportune time for Newcastle, but at least their temporary amnesia, their misplacing of their own identity, has seemingly shifted.
So too has the mood. A campaign that threatened to peter out before frozen toes and Bovril season began, has had an adrenaline injection. Twelve days has seen them progress to the Carabao Cup quarter-final, beat Arsenal at home and then claim three points against a Forest side sitting in third. Forest had limited visitors to the Trent’s banks to just a trio of goals before Sunday; Newcastle doubled that tally.
Below the top two, either the Premier League’s standard has dipped, or the gap between the rest has closed. For all the general disgruntlement, Newcastle are a Gordon missed penalty at Goodison Park off being outright third. Not bad given for the first few months, while showing flashes of a working warp drive, they largely chugged along at impulse speed.
Are Howe’s Newcastle now back? Well, they pass the sniff test. They have claimed eight points from losing positions, two shy of last season’s tally. Isak, who grabbed Sunday’s equaliser, is scoring freely again. Willock is reminding everyone just what they missed for the last injury-riddled 12 months. Lewis Hall gets better every game.
As for Joelinton, he will soon reach a double century of Newcastle appearances, a milestone few would have expected him to hit when the PIF takeover was completed. Having signed a new long-term contract last season, that tally could easily double – where he will play, though, is anybody’s guess.
