Joselu scores and MOTM yet again – Newcastle even better off keeping him than £40m Joelinton?

When Joselu joined Alaves for £2m on 14 July 2019, fair to say not many Newcastle fans were too upset.

Mike Ashley refusing to allow any offer to be made for Salomon Rondon obviously causing the most offence, staggering that the player of the season and most productive (11 PL goals and 7 assists) was actually happily pushed out of the door by the NUFC owner.

The departure of top scorer (12 PL goals) Ayoze Perez at least produced a £30m transfer fee, so not a terrible decision for Mike Ashley not to try and keep him, depending of course on what/who that money was spent on….

Only three days after Mike Ashley sold Joselu, he appointed Steve Bruce as NUFC Head Coach on 17 July 2019.

That quickly followed by Joelinton arriving on 22 July 2019. Mike Ashley making clear that Steve Bruce had not had any say on the £40m purchase, the owner revealing he’d had the deal in place since February,with only Rafa Benitez refusing to sanction it having temporarily halted the owner’s preferred/essential signing happening.

Now we are five months the wiser, what have we learnt?

Well, these are a few facts…

Joselu

The striker joined La Liga minnows Alaves and has so far scored seven goals already, starting 14 games and a sub in two others, playing 1,268 minutes.

In the games where Joselu has scored, Alaves have picked up 14 of their 19 current points total.

Joelinton

The striker has so far scored one goal, with 16 starts and one sub appearance, playing 1,282 minutes.

In the games where Joelinton has scored, Newcastle have picked up three of their current 22 points total.

I never thought I would say it but I honestly think we would have been better off keeping and playing Joselu, than signing Joelinton for this ever more ridiculous looking £40m that Mike Ashley insisted had to be spent on this particular striker.

Joelinton probably is a better player than Joselu away from the penalty area, although we haven’t seen any massive evidence of that.

However, having watched Joselu (as well as Joelinton!) a fair bit this season, I have to say that our old mate Josleu looks a far more natural and effective goalscorer. In fact with seven goals in less than half a season, he has already equalled Joelinton’s best ever goals total in a decent level league.

This weekend Joselu scored yet again to earn a point for his team with a sharp poacher’s finish in the box, when have we ever said that about Joelinton…he just doesn’t seem to come alive in the box.

Newcastle United were desperate for two reliable goalscorers once Mike Ashley ushered Rondon and Perez out of the door. Instead we got Joelinton and Andy Carroll, the latter may be now managing to start the odd game and looks a bit more effective than Joelinton, but he doesn’t look likely to be bothering the scorers much either.

Interesting to see as well that invariably the Whoscored ratings system makes Joselu the Alaves man of the match, as is the case yet again this weekend.

As you can see, the WhoScored ratings have him man of the match with a rating of 7.2, whilst watch (click ‘Watch on YouTube’ below after clicking play) his sharp finish for his seventh goal of the season by going to 0.59.

We need to see far more from Joelinton in terms of both goals and all round play to justify him as a credible NUFC signing, never mind a £40m one.

The post Joselu scores and MOTM yet again – Newcastle even better off keeping him than £40m Joelinton? appeared first on NUFC The Mag.