What Joelinton said shouldn't surprise anybody at Newcastle United

John O'Sullivan of Morecambe battles for possession with Newcastle United's Joelinton.

Joelinton’s up and running. A week after dejectedly trudging off the field following a forgettable personal display against Blackburn Rovers at St James’s Park, the striker left the pitch at the Mazuma Stadium with two goals to his name.

Joelinton should have scored a hat-trick, of course, but that’s another story.

The £40million signing will have taken confidence from his performance in last night’s 7-0 Carabao Cup win over Morecambe. Yes, they’re a League Two club, but Joelinton just needed some confidence, and his body language was very different when he left the field at the final whistle.

Maybe the Blackburn performance can be put down to him missing a large chunk of a shortened pre-season campaign.

Joelinton, certainly, was much better against Morecambe. He swept the ball home to give Newcastle the lead, and cut in from the left and looped a fierce shot into the net from outside the box with his right foot to make it 4-0 just past the half-hour mark.

The 24-year-old, playing up front with Miguel Almiron, also bizarrely didn’t attack a deflected first-half cross from Jacob Murphy at the far post as he believed it was going in. It stuck the post.

That incident might tell us more about Joelinton than the goals he scored against Morecambe. Joelinton told Steve Bruce at the break that he wanted Murphy to score.

“This is where he might have to be more selfish,” said Bruce after the third-round tie.

Bruce and his staff can’t coach more selfishness into Joelinton. He is what he is – a striker that doesn’t attack anything and everything in the box. He’s different, but, given space, and a sight of goal, he’ll have a go, as he did against Morecambe.

The thing is, though, you don’t get so much space, or too many sights of goal, in the Premier League.

Joelinton’s got something, and, physically, he looks made for English football, but he’s wasn’t the striker United needed last season, and he’s not been entirely convincing on the left, either.

Bruce opted not to take the No.9 shirt off Joelinton this season after signing Callum Wilson from Bournemouth for £15million earlier this month.

However, Wilson, or any other No.9, would have happily taken that first-half chance.

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