Newcastle boss Eddie Howe highlighted the performance of Joelinton in Monday night's 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
Edinson Cavani came off the bench to score an equaliser for an out-of-sorts Manchester United and dash Newcastle's hopes of a priceless second win of the Premier League season.
The Uruguayan was introduced after an error-strewn and at times shambolically poor first half from the visitors, during which they conspired to partly gift Allan Saint-Maximin the opening goal.
Howe said, "When we initially came in we thought Joelinton would play as a number 10, a second striker.
"We went down to 10 men against Norwich and reshuffled and played him as an eight and he was brilliant defensively. He has a tactical understanding. From then on I thought he had technical capabilities. You've seen tonight he's been brilliant defensively. His work-rate and the amount of ground he covers is incredible. He's a real team player. Such ability as well. He can only get better.
"We are very disappointed [not to win]. We deserved to win. The lads executed the game plan brilliantly. We had to be very good defensively in midfield. I thought we were very good and didn't deserve to concede. How David de Gea saved from Miguel Almiron at the end, I don't know. I thought it was in. Hopefully we've seen the beginning of a new team and how we want to play.
"We want more control in games. At the moment we have to take small steps to build to be the team we want to be. We have very good transition players, quick players. We really hurt Man Utd on transitions today. But for a bit more luck we could have won the game."
On Saint-Maximin, he added: "Naturally with someone like him you want him to have the ball all the time. When he's on song there's nobody quite like him. Key to our success is trying to feed him as much as we can."
On the injuries, Howe concluded: "We don't know. When Callum went down it looked a bad one because nobody was round him. He felt he'd been kicked but we didn't see it. Allan, I don't think is as serious but serious enough to bring him off. We are stretched. Difficult moments for us. The lads gave everything but we are thin on the ground in terms of bodies.
"I believe it's 13 plus a goalkeeper [to have enough players for a game]. We're going to be dangerously close to that number."
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