“Hard worker” – Ola Aina’s ex-manager salutes Onuachu’s new form at Southampton

Southampton head coach, Ivan Juric, has praised Super Eagles striker, Paul Onuachu, for his work rate in his side’s 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace last night, Soccernet.ng reports.

The former Genk man was handed his 9th start of the Premier League season at the Saint Mary’s yesterday evening, and he made the most of it, towering over Palace’s defenders to break the deadlock in the 20th minute.

However, the Saints slumbered towards the end, and Palace levelled the scores in the 92nd minute. A cross off the left from Jefferson Lerma found Matheus Franca in the Saint’s box, and the young Brazilian headed home, beating Aaron Ramsdale to score his first goal of the season.

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Despite his side dropping two vital points, Juric, who coached Nottingham Forest’s Ola Aina during his stint in Torino, praised Onuachu for his relentless hard work.

“He’s an incredible guy, always training hard. He has some good things and some bad things he can do better, but he’s one of those guys that is always working hard.

“I think we prepared a good game. I expected more from Mateus – for me he will have a great future because he’s a great guy, working hard and he gives us a lot this season, but in this first 45 minutes he didn’t do what I wanted from him. Paul [Onuachu] scored and put more energy,” the Southampton coach said in quotes revealed by the club’s official website.

With eight Premier League games left to play this season, Southampton are seven points behind 19th place Leicester City and it’ll take an absolute miracle for Onuachu’s side not to get demoted into the EFL Championships.