New Telegraph

Paul Onuachu deserves better in Eagles

In the past two football seasons, the best Nigerian scorer is Paul Onuachu of Belgian team, KRC Genk. He has registered 22 goals and two assists for his team in the 2020/2021 football season. He has been consistent and on the verge of surpassing his goals tally for last season.

We are concerned like many other Nigerians that this striker who scores goals with ease at club level is not a regular starter in the Eagles despite his exploits in Europe. He currently has seven UEFA Champions league goals to his credit in the past two seasons.

It is the duty of Super Eagles Manager Gernot Rohr to make Onuachu excel in the national team. We expect Rohr to adopt a pattern that suits the style of the scorer. For example, since he has height and also good in the air, the traditional wing play is best for the team with the instruction to the wingers to provide quality crosses for Onuachu. We recall Yekini was not too skilful. He had pace, height, strength and positioning which the then coach Clemens Westerhof built upon.

George Finidi from the right and Emmanuel Amuneke from the left provide the lobs from the flanks for Yekini to score goals. In Europe, Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich with 24 goals is top on the scorers chat, Andre Silva of Frankfurt has 16 goals while Cristiano Ronaldo and Muhamed Salah of Liverpool has 15 goals respectively.

Onuachu is only second to Lewandoski with 22 goals but the Belgian League is not rated among top five in Europe. His goals helped his team to place third on the table behind FC Brugge and Royal Antwerp. Onuachu has scored 22 of his teams’ 49 goals this term. With 43 points, they have won 12, drawn 11 and lost six in the current campaign. We insist Rohr will have to create starting role for Onuachu. He can play upfront along with Victor Osimhen but certainly, he should be starting for the Super Eagles based on his current form. The Nigerian has scored more than Ronaldo, Messi, Mbakpe, Luis Suarez, Karry Kane, Jamie Vardy and a host of other celebrated strikers in world football.

The Eagles manager should monitor Onuachu in his club to see how he converts chances so that he can bring such pattern to the national team. The Eagles attack should be built around Onuachu. Even if he is not getting it right now, he will get better with time because he is a natural goal poacher. No doubt, goal scoring is a key feature of football. A coach sets up his team to score as many goals as possible with 90 minutes duration of a football game.

All tactics and strategies are aimed at creating chances to score goals. Other two departments of football – midfield and defence – are expected to also joint the forward players to get goals. After getting enough goals, a team can decide to also defend as a unit. And so, goal scorers are the kings of the game.

The strikers who lead the attack with aim of scoring the goals get most of the attention in the game. Fans and indeed most stakeholders of the game reckon more with the scorers and of course the creative players who can dribble to create chances for strikers. It is not a surprise that the Federation of International Football Association, the Confederation of African Football and other top football bodies give the annual Best Player Award mostly to strikers or scorers. Goal, indeed, is the name of the game. Over the years, Nigeria has produced quality strikers. In modern era, late Rasidi Yekini stands out as a scorer of high repute.

There were also notable ones like Richard Owobokiri, Uwem Ekarika, Victor Agali, Victor Ikpeba, Jonathan Akpoborie, Samuel Ijeh, Chukwu Ndukwe, Julius Aghahowa, Obafemi Martins, Ikechuckwu Uche, Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Odion Ighalo just to mention a few. It is important to stress that not all the strikers excel in national colours of Nigeria.

Yekini was a monster for clubs and country. Aiyegbeni excelled more for his clubs than Eagles, Martins, Aghahowa, Uche and Ighalo were great for club and country. How well the scorers perform depends largely on the national team coach of the country. Coaches are expected to build the attack round the goal scorer and should work towards making the team to play to the strength of the striker.

This is important to make scoring easier for the team. Onuachu has done enough to gain the confidence of Rohr and if he has a problem with him, he can arrange to meet with the manager of Genk to determine how get the best of the striker. Even if he has to change pattern, he should create room for the in-form striker.

Read Previous

World shares gain for eighth straight day

Read Next

The lamentations of Governor Ortom

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *