Newcastle United fans on social media were in complete agreement about Joelinton’s performance against Brighton.
While it’s important to apply the caveats that Joelinton had to travel around the world during the international break, the Brazilian was far from his best for Newcastle United on Saturday.
Indeed, Newcastle lost 2-1 to Brighton in the Premier League to start a busy period in the worst possible fashion.
Eddie Howe’s side started reasonably well but fell behind through Danny Welbeck’s goal before the interval.
Nick Woltemade got Newcastle back into it before Welbeck scored again to seal all three points.
Fans on social media platform X were particularly unhappy with Joelinton’s performance.
Newcastle United fans slam Joelinton’s performance vs Brighton
Again, the fact that Howe admitted Newcastle had a slight fitness concern about Joelinton before the Brighton game should be taken into account.
Still, there’s little getting away from his difficult outing down on the south coast. The 29-year-old was sloppy on the ball and could have seen a poor back pass punished even before Welbeck scored.
“The start of the end with Joelinton this. He has been honking, and hasn’t reached the heights of his 22/23 season in some time now,” wrote one fan.
Another added: “[Anthony] Elanga and Joelinton need benched they don’t deserve to start every week.”
“We desperately need a 3rd midfielder who’s on the same level as Tonali and Bruno, Joelinton having a stinker here,” said another fan.
Joelinton now under pressure after Newcastle United return
Jacob Ramsey came off the bench for Newcastle against Brighton to play in his first game since August.
Newcastle are excited about Ramsey’s potential and, now he’s fit again, Joelinton should be worried.
The former Aston Villa midfielder must be putting pressure on Joelinton for a starting berth. Lewis Miley, meanwhile, got the assist for Nick Woltemade on the south coast and offered a vast improvement on Joelinton.
Writing Joelinton off would be unwise. There are reasons for his poor performance and he was hardly alone in not pulling up trees.
Still, it would also be foolish to completely overlook his struggles of late. Having suffered various injuries in recent months, he’s yet to get back to the levels we saw during the Carabao Cup final in March.
It’s reasonable to assume that improvements will come but Newcastle cannot wait forever.
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