“I know a great striker when I see one” – Ex-Montpellier and Portsmouth man sets goal target for Paul Onuachu

The Nigeria international has been on fire for Trabzonspor since he left England to ply his trade in Turkey

Former Super Eagles winger John Utaka has lauded Paul Onuachu for his fantastic start to life in the Turkish Super Lig, Soccernet.ng reports.

Utaka is convinced that Onuachu can hit 25 goals for Trabzonspor as he is blessed with the technique to score goals in many different ways.

Onuachu arrived at Trabzonspor in the summer after a difficult spell at Southampton and has been spectacular at his new home.

The former KRC Genk forward has six goals in eight games, with the latest two lifting Trabzonspor to a hard-fought 2-0 win over Konyaspor.

The winning goal in that encounter in the 85th minute was an audacious strike that has been tagged an early frontrunner for the Goal of the Year award and, it has got Onuachu trending across countries and social media platforms.

Utaka is not surprised to see Onuachu back to goalscoring ways and the former Montpellier and Portsmouth forward has tipped the Trabzonspor ace to be handful for opposing defenders.

“Paul Onuachu is a prolific goalscorer and a very good centre-forward,” Utaka said as per Hurriyet.

“I think he will make a big impact in Trabzonspor. Scoring 6 goals in 8 matches shows that he is a quality striker and shows superior performance. He is a technically very good player with great potential.

“Paul Onuachu can score at least 25 goals this season. I was a striker myself, so I know a great striker when I see one. I watched some of onuachu's matches and his highlights in the game.

“I am convinced of his potential because of the quality of the goals he scores. He scored different types of goals in different situations.”

It was a dream come true for Onuachu when he landed in the Premier League in January but the former FC Midtjylland man failed to find his range as Southampton were relegated from the English top flight.

Aside from Southampton, Onuachu has an incredible goalscoring record at other clubs.

The 29-year-old striker scored 74 goals and added 23 assists in 179 games for Denmark's FC Midtjylland. He also netted 85 goals and 10 assists in 134 matches for Genk.

But despite his no-show at Saint Mary's, Utaka remains convinced that his compatriot his a ‘top-level striker'

“As for Paul Onuachu ‘s transfer from Southampton, I think things did not go as he wanted there, but now he is finding the net again in Trabzonspor,” Utaka added.

“Examine his past records and you can tell that he has scored goals for all the clubs he has played for. We can see from the number of goals he scored that Paul onuachu undoubtedly has no problems scoring goals.

“The fact that he has already scored 6 goals in 8 matches for Trabzonspor is a great statistic for a top-level striker. I'm happy for him.”

Onuachu will take the time to rest from club and country duties during the international break as he was not called up for Nigeria's World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Lesotho.