Newcastle suffered their eighth defeat of the Premier League season on Sunday as they lost 4-0 to Leicester away from home.

The Magpies are 19th in the table and have only won one of their 16 matches so far, scoring 17 goals and conceding a whopping 34.

Scoring and conceding goals has been an issue for Newcastle and Eddie Howe could look to the January transfer window to rectify some of his problems.

Better than Joelinton

Mais Futebol, via Sport Witness, reported earlier this month that the Magpies have held talks over a possible deal for Benfica attacker Darwin Nunez. The report claims that the Portuguese side would like a fee in the region of £42.7m (€50m) for the striker. That price tag would break Newcastle's transfer record but it would surely be worth it.

Whilst Newcastle were being hammered by the Foxes at the King Power, Nunez was putting on a sensational showing for Benfica in a league clash with Famalicao on Sunday.

As per SofaScore, he won five of his ten ground duels and completed an impressive four dribbles in 90 minutes on the pitch. He also scored a stunning three goals from just three shots as Benfica won 4-1, scoring his hat-trick and managing four dribbles in just 33 touches of the ball - proving that he can work effectively without needing a constant supply of service.

The forward showed Howe exactly why he should sign him in January, as they are badly lacking a player of his quality at the top end of the pitch to support Callum Wilson, with this performance taking him to 14 goals in 18 games for Benfica across the Liga Bwin and Champions League. At the end of the day, goals win games and Newcastle do not have enough goalscorers in their side.

Wilson (six) and Allan Saint-Maximin (three) are the only players with more than one league goal this season. Joelinton has been supporting the former in a front two of late, but he has only managed one strike and the signing of Nunez could prove to be a major upgrade in that position, given that he scored three times as many goals on Sunday as the Brazilian has managed all campaign.

The 22-year-old played off Haris Seferovic in the match, which shows that he is capable of being deployed in a wider, or deeper, role rather than purely as a centre-forward. This means that he could come in and offer help to Wilson with his clinical edge in the final third, having shown that he has more of an eye for goal than Joelinton.

His manager Jorge Jesus previously stated that he has all the qualities to become world-class in his position, saying: "All this decision-making ability, finishing and speed… He was Benfica's most expensive purchase, and when there is no pandemic, he will be the most expensive sale. He will be a world-class player. Unfortunately for me, maybe I will lose him in a short time."

Based on that, they simply have to sign him.

AND in other news, NUFC heading for disaster on "embarrassing" 30 y/o dud, Howe once locked him in a room...D