“We only have Chuba” – Dutch star Berghuis reveals one quality Akpom brings to Ajax that no one else has

The Super Eagles hopeful has been in excellent scoring form for the Dutch giants after overcoming initial struggles in the Netherlands

Ajax Amsterdam winger Steven Berghuis has hailed Chuba Akpom’s brilliant heading ability following his goalscoring prowess against Vitesse on Saturday night, Soccernet.ng reports.

The Dutch giants got their biggest win of the season after handing out a 5-0 thrashing to Vitesse at the Johan Cruijff Arena.

Akpom scored Ajax’s fourth goal of the encounter, with the former Middlesbrough attacker heading the ball into the net from a corner. It was his fifth goal in as many games for the club he joined in the summer.

The Arsenal Academy product had earlier played a role in Ajax’s third goal, with his presence forcing Dominik Oroz to concede an own goal.

Akpom’s headed goal against Vitesse was his second for Ajax, as he had also scored with his head from a corner in the 2-0 home win against FC Volendam on November 2.

Berghuis is delighted to see that Akpom possesses good heading ability, a quality Ajax has in short supply since the departures of Edson Álvarez, Lisandro Martínez, and Sébastien Haller.

“Due to the departures of Edson Álvarez, Lisandro Martínez, and Sébastien Haller, we’ve lost a significant amount of heading power,” Berghuis told ESPN as per Voetbalzone.

“Today, we basically only have Chuba Akpom, who is good with his head.”

Berghuis expressed satisfaction with the result that moved Ajax up to the eighth position in the Eredivisie.

“The result is good, and we’ve scored a couple of beautiful goals, so it’s a fine evening. We need to aim for such results. Overall, it went quite well. 

“I see more and more structure in the game, especially on the ball. I think you can see that. We can still improve a lot in ball loss. We need to keep coaching each other; we have a very young team.”

Akpom and Ajax will return to the pitch on Thursday when they head to France to face Marseille in their UEFA Europa League matchday five meeting.

Ajax have two points from four games in Group B and need to win their last two matches to stand a chance of qualifying for the knockout stage.