Over the past few weeks, Hein Vanhaezebrouck appeared to go out of his way to criticise Everton loanee Henry Onyekuru, only to reveal it was for his own good, because that’s just the kind of coach he is.
Onyekuru almost signed for Celtic is the last winter window, so Brendan Rodgers will know all about the player, but may not be expecting what’s on the way.
Claiming he felt the Nigerian starlet, who signed at Goodison Park from Eupen over the summer, wasn’t good enough to play up front, Hein Vanhaezebrouck has continued to play the forward down the left-hand side, where he was decisive once again.
Scoring the winning goal against Lokeren in the 52nd, minute, the Everton youngster took his league tally up to eight, and was asked after the game by Het Belang Van Limburg if he felt he could end up playing up front against Celtic in the Champions League.
He said: “If the manager wants me to play [up front] against Celtic, I’d like to do that, but he has to decide that. We are a team, and it’s not just about me, is it? It’s also not important who scores. Only the result counts.”
Brendan Rodgers’ side are currently third in the group, and, while Anderlecht could still qualify, it would take an impressive performance from the Belgian side to pull off the upset midweek and knock Celtic out of Europe completely.
Having been criticised for not defending enough, Onyekuru has taken it upon himself to rectify that.
He continued: “At first, that was something I worked on here. Now I defend too much. If the coach thinks I’m exaggerating, I will adjust that. I have to work on making the right choices in my game”.
Another one of Vanhaezebrouck’s criticisms of the Everton loanee was his decision making, but with Lukas Teodorczyk struggling to find the back of the net, why not give Onyekuru a go up front?
He’s certainly up for the challenge, and Celtic, who will probably prepare to play against a target man, could end up facing an entirely different threat altogether.
Something for Brendan Rodgers to think about.
