The Goal king of Belgium last season Paul Onuachu has yet to start firing for Genk causing some to ask whether he has been affected an expected transfer to a major league after his rush of goals.
This season only KRC Genk are considered the biggest rivals to champions Club Brugge. This is partly due to the fact that the defining strongholds such as Theo Bongonda, Junya Ito and Paul Onuachu have not yet left the club.
Moreover, Genk have been considerably strengthened by the arrival of Simen Juklerod (Antwerp FC) Carel Eiting (Ajax), Mike Trésor (Willem II) and Mujaid Sadick (Deportivo La Coruna).
“As a club, we are convinced that we have the selection to compete for the highest,” Van den Brom told Sporza in mid-July.
“I’m not saying we’re going to be champions, but you have to have that ambition.”
These daring words by John van den Brom betrayed an enormous ambition and great enthusiasm with a view to the new football season. And he is right.
In the Super Cup against Club Brugge, KRC Genk already proved to have a quality team that may be stronger than the previous season.
But in the league opener against Standard on Friday, Genk could not do better than a 1-1 draw. And that was despite the fact that they enjoyed more scoring chances than Standard Liège.
Genk (2.11) counted almost twice as many expected goals on Friday evening than Standard (1.19).
It is of course still too early to speak of a poor start, but in order to aspire to the title, loss of points must be kept to a minimum.
“I’m here with mixed feelings,” said John van den Brom after the 1-1 draw with Standard.
“Because I think we could have, maybe should have won this game. On the other hand, you can still be happy with a point at the end. I really enjoyed how we played in the first half, with some nice attacks and runs, and some chances to go into halftime with more than 0-0. But we left that behind. You can only blame yourself for that.”
ONUACHU VS DESSERS
The fact that KRC Genk went into halftime 0-0 is largely due to the inefficiency of their main striker Paul Onuachu.
In the opening minutes, the Nigerian missed two similar header opportunities, both of which were provided by Junya Ito. Just after the opening quarter, Onuachu also made an unconvincing decision on Standard goalkeeper Arnaud Bodart from the edge of the box.
And after 23 minutes, last season’s Golden Bull also failed to aim an Angelo Preciado center between the posts.
Last season at least one of these four chances would have been converted, but in the opening game of the new football season, Onuachu’ was clearly not yet sharp.
And after the break Onuachu again struggled in front of goal because he missed another chance to score.
Coach John van den Brom was forced to intervene and that is why he pulled off Onauchu in the 62nd minute for supersub Cyriel Dessers.
And that turned out to be a golden move by the Dutch coach. Where Onuachu was not in the game at all, substitute Dessers was a decisive factor in Theo Bongonda’s 1-1 equaliser.
Onuachu the loser of the evening and Dessers great hero, when last season was usually the other way … however
POOR REPORT
The report of Paul Onauchu against Standard was therefore very disappointing. The Nigerian made five goal attempts on Friday evening, none of which resulted in a goal. That is a big contrast to last season, when the giant striker made an average of 3 goals per game with an average of 0.94 goal scored per game.
In addition, his expected goals value against Standard (0.85) was exactly the same as his last season average. In terms of efficiency and accuracy, Onuachu is clearly not yet at his usual best of last year.
While Paul Onuachu is a true goalscorer, the Nigerian continues to make a significant contribution in other areas of the game as well.
Even though the Nigerian is 2.01 metres tall, he has very good feet. Technically, Onuachu is skilful, which means that he has a major contribution to the teamwork at KRC Genk.
Moreover, due to his imposing physical appearance, he is very strong in aerial duels and he also knows how to hold his own in other duels. But against Standard he also showed very little of these qualities.
On Friday evening, Onuachu lost 15 duels – the most of all Genk players – and he only counted 7 successful offensive actions, while Dessers already realized 6 successful actions in half the playing time Onuachu had.
BIGGEST GENK TRANSFER
The signing of Paul Onuachu is perhaps one of the best transfers by Dimitri de Condé. The technical director of KRC Genk paid six million euros in August 2019 for an unknown Nigerian striker, who also only had credentials in a smaller competition like the Danish Superligaen.
Today, Genk hope to sell their top scorer for a multiple their investment.
“We are in our heads with the biggest outgoing transfer in the history of the club,” Dimitri de Condé told RTBF a few months ago.
For the time being, the Genk outgoing transfer record is held by Sander Berge (23 million, Sheffield United).
As technical director, Dimitri de Condé would prefer to see his top striker stay at KRC Genk, but in that capacity he also has to forge the iron when it is hottest.
To this day, Genk – as the only club in Belgium – still has a non-profit organization structure, which means that the people of Limburg have no access to external financing. As a result, without own capital – read: transfer income – it becomes impossible to grow.
Genk have to save to finance their projects, such as renovating the training accommodation and the stadium. And so a transfer fee of at least 23 Million Euros sounds like music to the ears of the people of Genk.
Paul Onuachu himself dreams of the Premier League, where Arsenal are his favourite team, and with his profile he could succeed across The Channel as well.
But for now, only Olympique Lyon were mentioned by name as a possible destination for Onuachu.
That is quite remarkable for a striker who scored 35 goals in 41 official games last season.
“You don’t hear anything about Onuachu in the transfer rumour mills,” said Johan Boskamp last weekend in Het Belang van Limburg.
And after his disappointing start to the new season, fewer clubs will be knocking on the door of Genk for him.
Adapted from Voetbalnieuws.be
