Paul Onuachu: Anatomy of A Goal Scoring Machine

 

You can't just wave aside a player who had scored 27 goals in 31 appearances, even if he is playing in a backyard league.No matter how you may see it, Paul Onuachu is not a fluke. And achieving such a feet in the Belgium Jupiter League tells you so much about his class. 

I saw Ebere (as he was called then) play for Ebiede FC when he was just 17 years old here in Nigeria and I wondered at his goal scoring exploits. He must have had a record of an average of 2 goals per game or even more. Unfortunately, these records were not included in his career goals. 

Perhaps, not many knows that Onuachu was the highest goal scorer in the Danish Superliga for three consecutive years in 2017, 2018 and 2019.. Indeed, the towering 2.01m giant is actually a goal scoring machine if you know how to deploy him effectively in the field of play. 

He found the back of the net 17 times in 30 appearances in Danish Superliga and 22 goals in 40 appearances for all competitions for Midtylland FC in 2019. He scored 23 goals in 45 appearances in 2017 and 17 goals in 31 appearances in 2018. And won the golden Boot awards each of these years. 

Onuachu cannot stop scoring goals even when he is not fully fit or recovering from injury, he always manage to find the back of the net.. He has scored over 116 career goals. only fall short of Odion Ighalo's 144 all time goals. 

It calls to question then that Onuachu has only scored 1 goal in 9 games in his international eppearances for the Super Eagles. And in the last two assignments he was only invited to the national team as an alternate player when Victor Osihmen couldn't come for the games. 

So, we looked at the make up of this magnificent center forward from Owerri IMO state. Why does he score lot of goals in his club and find it difficult to score in the national team. 

We found out that it was how Super Eagles Head Coach positioned him in all the games he had played for the national team. Gernot Rohr's 4-5-1 formation is a bit strange from how he plays for his club. 

The fact that Super Eagles doesn't have such creative midfielders to feed him upfront and the formation doesn't provide for adequate assists to the striker, makes Onuachu stand as a lone ranger among the defense line of the opponent. 

Rohr's conservative formation that concentrates on having more men in the midfield and defence line hasn't allowed most strikers invited to the national team to shine. You can say that for Henry Onyekuru, Simeon Nwankwo (Slimy), Stephen Odey, Cyriel Dresser,  Anthony Nwakaeme, even Victor Osihmen. Perhaps, only Odion Ighalo were able to excel with the strange formation. 

Paul Onuachu, 2.01m tall and physically strong striker; very intimidating to defenders, clinical finisher and lethal in front of goalposts. However, Onuachu is not a very fast player for quick breaks and speed counter attacks, but he can take on defenders one-on-one and bully pass them with his dribbling skills and big structural push around the 18 yard box

We found out that Onuachu's club Genk play either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-4 and in some cases 4-4-2 formation. So Onuachu always had several attacking midfielders assisting upfront and such a creative midfielder in Bryan Heynen and great assists from the youngster Lucas Xoyen. 

Maybe, Rohr should adjust his formation to fit the kind of players he has or give Onuachu more time to adjust to his formation. Every good coach will consider this options.