Ronald Koeman never got the chance to coach Henry Onyekuru at Everton – but the Dutchman might not have been impressed with one part of his game.
Henry Onyekuru’s reputation continues to rise with no end in sight. It seemed almost every club on the continent wanted to sign the striker on the back of his 22-goal breakthrough season at Belgian outfit KAS Eupen so Everton pulled off a real coup agreeing a £7 million deal in July, per the BBC.
Onyekuru has since returned to Belgium with Anderlecht so he can obtain a work permit in order to play in the Premier League. Though with The Mirror claiming both Atletico Madrid and Juventus are willing to pay £15 million for the 20-year-old before he has even made his Everton debut, it’s clear that The Toffees have a star on their hands.
The Nigerian youngster has hoovered up the plaudits in 2017/18, scoring six goals in eight league starts for Anderlecht and testing Dani Alves’ ageing limbs in a Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain last week.
It’s not been all rosy for Onyekuru recently, however. The youngster has recently been subject to plenty of criticism over his defensive work-rate with DH Net even going as far as to suggest that he does not understand his role in manager Hein Vanhaezebrouk’s 3-1-4-2 system.
In particular, Onyekuru’s seemingly lackadaisical approach towards tracking back has caused a few problems with onlookers in Belgium. The striker, then, may be a little lucky that Ronald Koeman has been sacked at Goodison Park.
After all, the Dutchman had no qualms about freezing out some of Everton’s most talented attackers, such as Gerard Deulofeu, Kevin Mirallas and Ross Barkley, due to a perceived lack of defensive output.
Nonetheless, you can’t imagine the disciplinarian Sean Dyche, who has emerged as a frontrunner for the Everton post (The Sun), being particularly willing to let Onyekuru have a free reign.
Ironically, the striker probably has to work on his defending before he arrives at Goodison Park.
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