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By Peter Akinbo.
Nigerian strikers Paul Onuachu and Terem Moffi are both stuck in a reversal of fortunes in the second half of the 2022/23 season after the duo completed January transfers to different clubs and are yet to find the back of the net for their new employers.
Onuachu completed a late 18m switch from Belgium club Genk to Southampton on the last day of the January transfer window, after scoring 16 goals in 19 appearances in the current Belgian Pro League season and despite his exit, he still remains the highest goalscorer in the competition.
Tied to a three-and-a-half- year deal at St. Mary’s, Onuachu surely has enough years to live his Premier League dream, but first, he will have to help Nathan Jones men escape relegation if he will have the chance of spending the remaining three years on his contact in the Premier League.
For Moffi, he stayed in the Ligue 1 making a loan move from Lorient to Nice with an obligation to buy at the end of the season.
Prior to the move, the striker had 12 goals in 18 appearances for Lorient and was third on the Ligue 1 highest goalscorers’ charts behind only Reims’ Folarin Balogun and PSG’s Kylian Mbappe but he is now sixth on the charts after failing to score for Nice and other strikers have overtaken him.
Both strikers have had similar individual experiences for their new clubs but very different team results. Moffi and Onuachu have both played two games for their current clubs but while Onuachu came off the bench on his debut which ended in a 3-0 loss to Brentford and started the second, a 2-1 Wolves defeat before being substituted, Moffi started both games; their 3-1 win against Marseille and was on the pitch for the full 90 minutes in their 3-0 triumph over Ajaccio.
While Moffi’s Nice occupy 7th position in the Ligue 1 and are nine points off fourth-placed RC Lens, Onuachu’s Saints are dead last in the Premier League with 15 points, four points away from safety.
Onuachu will be the most desperate of the two to find the back of the net for Southampton as he was signed to score the goals they urgently need if they will avoid the drop to the Championship division.
The 28-year-old is expected to lead the line against a struggling Chelsea side at Stamford Bridge on Saturday (today) and a goal plus a win there would do wonders for his confidence and lift the morale of his team.
The Chelsea backline has conceded 22 goals in 22 games this season while struggling for goals on the other end so should the 6’5 striker take his chances and find the right spots, he may yet be the Saints’ saviour in the 2022/23 season.
Throughout Onuachu’s stay in Belgium, he was consistent with goals scoring and never ran short of them in the second half of the season as well. In the 2020/21 season, his best in Belgium, Onuachu bagged 29 goals for Genk in the league with 14 of them coming in the second half of the season.
Moffi on the other hand will also be keen to score when his side faces off against in-form striker Balogun and his Reims team on Saturday (today) at the Allianz Riviera.
With two of the hottest Nigerian strikers on the pitch for the fixture, the crowd will expect goals and Moffi will not want to be second-best or have Balogun pull further away from him in the first place.
More motivation for the 23-year-old will come from his teammates who have been delivering the goals as he tries to find his feet at the new club, and he will not want to lose his spot in the first team if he continues to fail to do what he was brought to the team for, which is score goals.