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Three major reasons why Victor Osimhen struggles to hit 20 league goal tally

Right now, Victor Osimhen is one of the most sought-after strikers in Europe. The Nigerian has been linked with a host of European clubs.

He is in the same bracket as other young prolific strikers such as Erling Haaland, Dusan Vlahovic who can easily score 20 league goals in a season.

Dusan has scored 20 league goals on two occasions, Haaland scored 28 in 27 games last season, he has 16 in 14 league games this season despite his repeated injuries.

But Victor Osimhen was only closed to hitting the 20 goals mark once while playing for Charleroi when he scored 19 in 34 league games.

This season has just 7 league goals for Napoli in 18 league games – this return is very poor for a player of his caliber.

Having watched many of his games from his time at Lille, and Napoli SportsRation delves into three major reasons it has been difficult for him to hit the big numbers.

1. Selfish teammates

Victor Osimhen often gets overlooked by his teammates. He makes good run and they always decide to go another route.

Fabian Ruiz, Matteo Politano, Piotr Zielinski, and most especially captain Lorenzo Insigne are all guilty of this.

You wonder if they have anything against him as they do this week in week out.

Last night, Kalidou Koulibaly a central defender was the one trying to pick out Victor Osimhen, he attempted on three different ocassions.

We can blame Victor Osimhen for drifting away from the 18-yard box, doing to much and wearing himself out, but the reality is that he doesn’t get enough services.

He doesn’t get clean passes in the area, they just send the ball and wait for him to do all the work when they decide to find him.

2. Club System

It is frustrating watching Napoli play sometimes. They often look to defend most of the time explains why they are the best defensive team in the league.

But with quality players such as Fabian Ruiz, Matteo Politano, Piotr Zielinski, Hirving Lozano, Dries Mertens and Lorenzo Insigne in your team you have to play better offensive football.

Victor Osimhen is mostly played like a target man – heavy balls are sent his way if they ever passed the balls to him.

Always visibly isolated and left to deal with two defenders all by himself. When he beats one another one is waiting to stop him.

Victor Osimhen just labours and works without getting enough support. Sometimes after running the flanks there is no one to pass the ball to.

3. His Style of Play

You cannot score goals if you are not in the box or close to the opponents’ goal post. Victor Osimhen prides himself on his pace, and physical strength.

He fights for every ball within his reach. He drifts to the flanks, acts as a channel through which his team can play.

Holds up the ball until there is someone to assists him. Victor Osimhen makes good use of his pace, height, and physical strength.

He runs at defenders, defends set pieces, and runs his socks off every time he pulls on the jersey.

Despite these great attributes, Victor Osimhen’s game lacks a few things.

Positional Awareness

To be fair on him, he is improving on this aspect of his game but he can be better.

In the Europa League round of 16 games against Barcelona, he was caught in the offside position a few times.

It looks like sometimes he doesn’t time his run before making them. He needs to work on his movement when with the ball and without it.

Work on his finishing

Last night in the Napoli v Milan game, he had two half chances, one immediately after the visitors took the lead, his effort was saved easily by Mike Maignan, he should have done better.

He often get half chances most of whom were created by him, but his finishing has been poor.

I don’t think he needs to change his style of play, even though his robust style of play will always get him injured thereby missing some games which will result into loss of rhythm.

He just needs to work on his finishing, awareness and tone down his agreesion to avoid picking up uneccesary cards

Victor Osimhen can score 20 league goals in any league if he works on his finishing, awareness, plays in a system to his built to his strength and amongst teammates who cares for him.

What do you think?

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