Joelinton is not No.9 Magpies needed so badly

RECORD SIGNING NOT PLAYING IN THE CORRECT POSITION

I WOULD like to pose a pertinent question: when Newcastle decided to splash out double their record transfer fee for Joelinton this summer in an effort to placate fans over the disappearance of Rafa Benitez, who decided he should play as an orthodox No 9?

There are several boxes to be ticked whenever a player is recruited.

Is he worth the asking price? Is he sound of character and commitment.

Is he potentially trouble in the dressing room. How exactly will he fit into our team? It is that last bit which puzzles me. How on earth did United’s transfer decisionmakers see Joelinton at Newcastle?

Surely not as a direct replacement for Salomon Rondon, bearing in mind the way this team performs. Yet that is what he is being asked to do.

Remaining in and around the penalty area as a lone front man capable of holding up the ball while the cavalry arrive from way back is not playing to Joelinton’s strengths.

On early evidence there is a footballer lurking somewhere deep inside an athletic stature but it is not a traditional United No 9.

Just look at his touches inside the penalty area – poor service or not – count up how many shots he has in a game and recall his two clear unchallenged headers close in at SJP which did not even end up on target and you realise this is not a classic goalscorer in the Alan Shearer, Andy Cole and Les Ferdinand mould.

When Steve Bruce recalled seeing Joelinton play for Hoffenheim, he talked of him operating wide on the left.

The Premier League scout I got to analyse United’s players a few weeks ago in this very column argued Joelinton is never a natural centre-forward but more a chief support act in a two.

He feels more comfortable coming deep to pick up the ball and run at a back line. My feeling is Joelinton is as much about assists as he is goals.

Certainly he has never reached double figures in a league season since coming to Europe and, despite being young which equates to still learning, he does not possess the natural instincts of a serial goalscorer and therefore will never be one.

Yet United were desperate to sign him – desperate enough for a guy like Mike Ashley, who can do an acceptable imitation of Ebenezer Scrooge to cough up £40m for him. Benitez felt that was too much and resisted a deal, so when he went Ashley and his transfer advisers rushed through the package with Hoffenheim and presented it to Bruce as a fait accompli.

Why, apart from the fact that at his age Ashley could be persuaded he would double his money selling Joelinton on if he enjoyed a good season in the PL?

Paying the money was one gamble, playing him in the wrong position quite another. It is the same with Miguel Almiron, Ashley’s original club record purchase at £21m. Where on earth is his best position?

Where did United visualise playing him when he was being scouted?

Right now Almiron resembles a puppy chasing a paper bag in a strong wind.

Or a little lad in the schoolyard who just runs after the ball wherever it goes.

He is enthusiastic, he is willing, he wants to succeed, but he is not disciplined, is not one-eyed and most certainly not a finisher. No goals and no assists is an awful record for an attacker.

So is Almiron a right winger? Left winger? No 10? Attacking midfielder? United know not.

Another question has to be asked: Is Almiron an improvement on Ayoze Perez?

If the answer is no, and that appears the only conclusion, then on current evidence United have not spent well overall on their front two but somehow Bruce, under terrific personal pressure anyway, must discover how to get the best out of Ashley’s £61m investment.

Then there is the matter of United’s third-costliest player, Allan Saint Maximin, whose £16m fee matches that of Michael Owen a few years ago. Injury has left us without a long look at the Saint as yet, so we are left to contemplate whether he can score goals regularly and if his end product picking out the right pass in the final third is consistent enough. Oh, and what is his best position? Over to you Steve Bruce - and those who scouted Maximin. Once fit enough to start match to match, all THREE have to be shoehorned into the same team, each utilising to the maximum their personal strengths. Was that problem thought about before cheques were signed? It does not look like it.