When you’ve only scored 24 goals in the entire Premier League season, ensuring your £40m striker is at the top of the pitch is surely one of the main port of calls for a manager?Instead, on Saturday afternoon, Steve Bruce went right outside of the box by deploying Joelinton from the left-hand side.Whilst the Brazilian has had experience playing out wide before with some of his previous clubs, it is still not his most natural position. And it showed big time against Burnley.
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As per Sofascore, he made just 18 passes, had no shots on goal whatsoever, and lost possession 13 times. And after seeing Bruce’s decision to change up Joelinton’s position, Newcastle fans took to Twitter to lay the blame at the manager’s door.
Some fans took aim at Bruce leaving Allan Saint-Maximin on the bench in order for Joelinton to play from the left, with one supporter in particular saying that the move was evidence of the Newcastle boss being a “clueless charlatan”.
One fan of the Tyneside club meanwhile questioned why Bruce didn’t play the Brazilian on the left all along if he felt that’s where he is most comfortable.
It certainly wasn’t the most ideal scenario for Joelinton to be involved in.
The 23-year-old would have been keen no doubt to add to his measly tally of three goals, but Bruce did him no favours by shunting him out wide.
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The only positive for him may be that this is only a one-game experiment and that he returns to his normal role in the next game.
Meanwhile, Newcastle fans tear into this ace’s display against Burnley.