Joelinton deserves the patience we gave Rondon

Joelinton has not impressed fans and pundits in his first two games, but it took Rondon months to earn praises from fans and pundits.

Joelinton looked like an elite, dynamic striker in preseason as he created chances for himself, for others around him and scored twice in the last two friendlies. This generated optimism among Newcastle United supporters and expectations are high for the Brazilian on Tyneside.

So far, Joelinton has gotten off to a slow start. He put up in a decent shift against Arsenal where he had two good looks at goal, but he only had one attempt against Norwich City – an attempt that proved to be a costly miss from a few feet away.

The good news is that the Magpies have 36 games left on their schedule, so there is plenty of time for Joelinton to turn things around. When the club brought Salomon Rondon in on loan from West Brom last season, fans expected him to score in double figures. Fortunately, he managed to score 11 goals and completed seven assists, but he failed to score a single goal from August through October.

At times, we all thought we had another Islam Slimani on our hands, but once the first goal went in for Rondon against Bournemouth his confidence continued to grow and ten more goals followed. When I say that Joelinton deserves the same patience we gave to Rondon, I do not mean we wait silently until November for him to score.

Rondon was 29 and played for Newcastle United as a player on a season-long loan. Joelinton is 23 and the club shattered their transfer record by spending £40m to secure his services. With that said, fans should be expecting goals from Joelinton much sooner than they did from Rondon, but we have to be realistic and acknowledge that it will take time for Joelinton to adapt to English football.