No goals in 5 games: Striker’s form collapses amid £20m Tottenham links

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It had been a long time since Paul Onuachu went five games without a goal in all competitions – November 2019 to be exact.

So as one of European football’s most lethal centre-forwards drew a blank once more during Genk’s 3-0 home defeat to KAA Gent on Saturday – the fifth match in succession in which he has failed to find the net – questions were always going to be asked.

“Even Paul Onuachu fell through the ice against AA Gent,” former Genk midfielder Thomas Buffel said after a result that left the club equidistant between the top of the table and the relegation zone.

“These are physically tough months. (Manager John van den Brom) must try to bring back the good feeling in training.

“Give (Onuachu) some extra crosses. He must see the ball fly into the net again.”

With the Daily Mail claiming Tottenham Hotspur, Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund were weighing up bids for the £20 million-rated Onuachu ahead of the January transfer window, Genk’s towering, 2m target man could hardly have picked a worse time to misplace his shooting boots.

He scored 35 times last season and a further 11 in the first 11 games of the current campaign.

The Onuachu who took to the field against Gent – or Thursday’s thumping Europa League defeat to summer suitors West Ham United for that matter – looked a pale imitation of the man who has spent much of the past 12 months ripping through opposition defences like a hot knife through butter.

What’s happened to Tottenham target Paul Onuachu?

“The worst thing is I see players who no longer have confidence,” sighed the embattled Van den Brom via Brilla. “I saw some players do things (against Gent) that I haven’t seen for a long time.

“I am very disappointed.”

Talking of disappointment, Onuachu has left no-one in doubt how he feels about spending another season at Genk, admitting he was “waiting and waiting” for a big-money move to fall into his lap in the summer.

“I can do nothing more to secure a transfer (than scoring 35 goals in one season),” he pointed out, justifiably.

If Onuachu failed to get a move on the back of the best season of his career, what chance does he have after going five games without a goal for the first time in two years?