It’s fair to say there’s no other player in European football quite like Joelinton — and, in part, for good reason.
Centre-forwards generally want to remain in that position. They don’t want to be converted to a left-winger, and then a left-centre midfielder, and then a defensive midfielder, and then end up in a position that often seems like they’re a supplementary defender.
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Maybe focusing on Joelinton’s positional journey dominates discussion too much. Then again, maybe his history in more advanced positions explains why he’s so good at nullifying opposition attackers. In Newcastle’s 2-1 Carabao Cup final victory over Liverpool on Sunday, among various other good performers, Joelinton was vital to Eddie Howe’s tactical plan. As ever, his role was somewhat unusual.
When Sandro Tonali returned from suspension to become a regular in Newcastle’s midfield late last year, he was generally pushing forward to the right of the midfield triangle, with Bruno Guimaraes sitting deep. After a few weeks, they swapped roles, with Tonali playing more of a holding role and Guimaraes moving into attack. But from the passing network at the weekend, this was something different again: Joelinton as the deepest midfielder.
That, for long periods, was what it looked like. Here’s Tonali and Guimaraes pressing Ryan Graveberch and Alexis Mac Allister…
… and when the ball is played past them, Joelinton is sitting deep and tracking Dominik Szoboszlai.
But the strange thing was that Joelinton wasn’t playing in the middle of the three, he was always to the left. Here, as Liverpool play the ball across their defence, Newcastle’s midfield are in a very tight trio.
But when the pass reaches Virgil van Dijk, Newcastle spring into action. Joelinton tells Tonali to move up onto Gravenberch — a slightly unusual movement away from the man in possession — with Guimaraes on Mac Allister.
This, again, means Joelinton ends up the deepest player, on Szoboszlai, despite notionally playing to the left of the three.
The reason was Joelinton’s marking job on Szoboszlai. Here, Newcastle are in a very different shape — two banks of four, with Joelinton in advance of the midfield. That’s because he had been tracking Szoboszlai’s drift towards Liverpool’s right-back zone. Diogo Jota is in space between the lines, but Newcastle were largely happy to allow space there as long as Szoboszlai was tightly tracked.
Indeed, Szoboszlai was so tightly tracked that when you look at Liverpool’s passing network, up until when Arne Slot made substitutions on 63 minutes, the Hungarian is completely disconnected and deeper than you’d expect. Unable to receive passes, he was forced away from his usual zones to go looking for the ball, which suited Newcastle.
But the most impressive thing about Joelinton’s performance wasn’t his marking job on Szoboszlai, it was that despite being tasked with that role, he simultaneously managed to regularly be Newcastle’s spare man, sweeping up to help out team-mates.
Sometimes this was with aerial balls. In the example below, Liverpool hit the ball long, as they did rather too frequently, and Joelinton drops back to become an extra centre-back, winning a header in front of Jota and allowing the actual centre-backs to stay put.
When Jota moved towards the ball, Fabian Schar generally stuck very tight. Here’s Newcastle’s centre-back moving up into midfield to track him…
… which left a gaping hole in the defence. On this occasion, there’s no real danger and Joelinton doesn’t need to fill it.
Here’s another example of Schar’s marking of Jota — the Portuguese forward moves across to the right wing and Schar follows him all the way across from right-sided centre-back, moving in front of both Dan Burn and Tino Livramento to stay tight. This is somewhat unusual and shows how Joelinton needed to watch for gaps behind him.
And that’s what he did. Here, once again, Schar is staying very tight to Jota, who has received the ball on his chest. Right-back Kieran Trippier is retreating, having just contested an aerial battle with Luiz Diaz, who is on the ground. So Joelinton drops back and is almost like a sweeper behind two man-marking defenders.
Here’s another example. Livramento has pushed forward but has been caught out. He’s ahead of the ball and Jarell Quansah is determined to sprint into the exposed left-back zone.
But no problem — Joelinton is happy to sweep up in the left-back zone, too, and wins the tackle.
After Burn put them 1-0 up shortly before half-time from a set piece, Newcastle started the second half aggressively. This was an interesting situation, showing Joelinton effectively in a line of four with three defenders. From left to right, Livramento is about to jump up to Quansah, Joelinton is on Szoboszlai, Schar is again sticking tight to Jota, and Trippier is watching Diaz. Behind them, out of shot, Burn is alone against Mohamed Salah.
Clearly, with such a strict man-marking approach, one slip can prove fatal. And that’s why Newcastle were so indebted to Joelinton’s ability to not merely think about his own man, Szoboszlai, but his team-mate’s designated players, too. Here, when Andy Robertson slipped in Jota, Joelinton’s starting position was up against Szoboszlai.
But when Jota ran onto the ball, looked up and saw Diaz was going to be free for a cutback, Joelinton spotted the problem and left Szoboszlai for the more immediate danger.
Jota played the ball perfectly and this would have been a golden chance for Szoboszlai, but Joelinton got there first, cleared the ball, and celebrated the defensive intervention like it was a goal.
Shortly afterwards, Alexander Isak made it 2-0 and Liverpool never looked like making a comeback.
Joelinton’s attention will now turn to international duty. Sixteen months after he was sent off in a World Cup qualifier against Argentina, he’s received a recall ahead of Brazil’s fixtures against the same opposition and Colombia, both of whom are currently ahead of Brazil in the CONMEBOL qualification table.
Joelinton isn’t exactly a classic Brazilian-style footballer, but perhaps that’s exactly what this struggling Brazil side needs.
(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
