Tolu Arokodare: A Big Shoe to Fill

Replacing a striker with an averaged of 0.81 goals per game would never be an easy task, but for Tolu Arokodare, he would not be daunted by the challenges ahead and to prove his reediness, the Nigeria international was on target on his debut for Genk

Nigeria international, Tolu Arokodare, completed a stunning switch from Amiens FC to KRC Genk in Belgium on the brink of the January transfer deadline.

Following the departure of their star player, Paul Onuachu, who made a “dream” move to Southampton, the Smurfs were able to sign the striker for somewhere around €5 million.

After moving to the Luminus Arena, Arokodare said it was the finest professional decision he had ever made.

The Nigeria striker recently started out on the bench for the Belgian team and scored on his first effort.

Following this, Wouter Vrancken, Arokodare’s new manager, praised him, claiming he is “more explosive than Onuachu.”

Before making his debut, the head of football for Genk, indicated that the Nigerian is the best stand-in for Onuachu, and there is no one better.

With all these supportive remarks, it seems that Genk as a whole is merely using this move to conceal their sadness about losing their star player and dry their tears.

For Amiens SC, Arokodare was not at his best during last season, and his scoring ability was not up to pace. The Nigerian averaged 0.36 goals per game, converting just 11% of his goal chances into actual goals, while scoring 21 goals and dishing out four assists for the French team.

For a striker who started out as a true goal hacker at Valmiera FC in the Latvian league, with 22 goals in 34 games, they are by no means remarkable numbers. But after that, Arokodare failed to demonstrate his ability as a productive and efficient striker at either FC Köln or Amiens SC.

He was particularly unsteady in France, and his attacking stats throughout his stay at Amiens were below par. Compared to Onuachu’s stats in three and a half seasons at KRC Genk, they are glaringly different.

The Super Eagles attacker averaged an absurd 0.81 goals per game. With a target effectiveness of 25%, Onuachu was likewise quite effective in scoring goals.

However, he was leading the Belgian Pro League with 16 goals prior to his transfer to Southampton, so it could take Arokodare longer to catch up this season.

Indeed, if the former Valmiera player was given a clean slate and a huge performance gap to cover, perhaps, he will.

Earlier in the week, former manager, Philippe Hinschberger aimed cheap shots at Arokodare after the youngster completed his move from Amiens to Genk.

In France, Arokodare worked together with Hinschberger for a year and a half where he scored 21 goals and added four assists in 63 matches.

While admitting that the young Nigerian has talent, Hinschberger is not unhappy that Arokodare has left Amiens.

And the former Metz manager is full of knocks for Arokodare, insisting that he found it hard to work with the forward because he was not open to learning.

“Tolu is a player who needs a lot of time and energy. He is still in raw form,” Hinschberger said hours after Arokodare left for Belgium.

“From time to time, you want to make him work on passing, control, or his back-to-goal game. I think he has to get it into his head that he’s a young player, who needs to develop. From time to time, he forgets it and he trains like a pro who has a 15-year career.

“The misunderstanding that we both may have had was that I was asking him to work on his qualities. He’s still a youngster who needs to do a lot of basic things, and that’s not too much into it.

However, after a few training sessions with Arokodare, Genk’s manager is already singing the praises of the 22-year-old.

Throwing Hinschberger’s claims into the trashcan, Vrancken is delighted that Arokodare is ‘eager’ to take in new knowledge.

“He is more explosive than Onuachu, who of course already has more experience as a finisher,” Vrancken said, as per VoetbalKrant.

“But Tolu is a young player with a lot of potentials, he was at the top of our wish list. He has a good bounce and is very eager to learn. He asks a lot of questions, which I think is very positive.

“We are patient with him because all our game principles are new to him. Both offensively and defensively. He was used to being played on his body, after which they would see what happened. That is why we will work intensively with him in the coming weeks.”

Arokodare could not have asked for a better debut in the Jupiler League as the striker came off the bench to score in Genk’s 3-2 win away to KAA Gent at the weekend.

The Lagos-born attacker could not hide his pleasure at how fantastic everything has gone in his first few days in Genk.

“I can’t even explain how much I feel, scoring on my debut, we win away from home, it’s unbelievable,” Arokodare said.

“My first days at the club went very well, on and off the pitch. My teammates are great, they help me a lot. I think that like me you could see the level of the team; it is quite high. Even Paul Onuachu gave me some advice when I saw him just before his departure. The goal is obviously to be champions.”

Arokodare has big shoes at Genk to fill as Onuachu registered 85 goals and 10 assists for the Smurfs before departing for England.