Nigerian Players’ Review: Dennis, Troost-Ekong, Okereke, Awaziem, Onyeka

Nigerian Players' Review is a weekly series evaluating the performances of Nigerian players in Europe.

It has been two years since Emmanuel Dennis first registered on the consciousness in a major way. That night in October of 2019, when he scored an admittedly jammy Champions League brace against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu and aped the celebration that Blancos legend Cristiano Ronaldo had popularized, seemed a star-making one. 

Things did not quite go as planned, however. For all of his talent, Dennis has been undermined by his lack of good judgment. First, he kicked up a fuss over not being allowed to leave Club Brugge when he wanted. Then came the infamous bus seat incident when, in an act of petulance, he refused to travel for a game. After that, a horrible loan spell at Koln followed where, in his own words, he was mentally uninvested and short on motivation.

It was in this state, having almost completely squandered all of his goodwill, that newly-promoted Watford came calling in the summer. Essentially, Dennis is having to re-introduce himself.

The results have been largely positive. Scoring on debut never hurt anyone, and neither does working your bollocks off every game chasing the ball. Since he came off the bench to run riot against Everton, new boss Claudio Ranieri has been a supplicant at the altar of Dennis. 

He seems a quite feast or famine footballer, capable of both the flamboyant and the anonymous; as it happens, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United (have to get used to not writing that anymore) drew the short straw at the weekend, and the 24-year-old duly obliged with a goal and two assists. Oh, and his trusty yellow card as well, this time for his celebration. Again with the bad judgment, but you can give him a pass here.

Keeping with a Watford theme, Super Eagles vice captain William Troost-Ekong had the best seat in the house from which to observe Solskjaer’s last rites. Well, at least for 64 minutes he did. After that, it became necessary for him to join the fray.

Coming off with a slight limp was Nicolas Nkoulou, who joined the club on a free transfer on request of Ranieri. The Cameroon international has now started the Hornets’ last two matches either side of the international break ahead of Ekong, a run that has coincided with greater defensive solidity for Watford.

Coincidence? Possible. Small sample size? Fair argument. However, what is clear is however one slices it is that the club’s Italian manager has quickly weighed the King in the scales, and found him wanting. While Arsenal and Manchester United are hardly the cream of the attacking crop in the Premier League, Watford now have three more points from those encounters than they would have expected, and that has come with Nkoulou keeping things secure at the back.

What does this mean for Ekong? No, that is the wrong question. The right one is: what does this mean for Nigeria? It’s just seven weeks from their opening match at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON); if it happens that their vice captain continues to enjoy a more sedate living at Vicarage Road and has not played another match by the time the tournament kicks off, whoever is in charge of the national team will have a tough decision to make.

That decision may very well involve Chidozie Awaziem, who was superb in Alanyaspor’s 2-0 win over Besiktas at the weekend.

The 24-year-old has been imperious this season for Alanyaspor, who have only conceded seven goals in the nine matches he has played since joining from Boavista. That defensive parsimony has them up in fifth, and while it is unlikely they will last the pace (despite strong results against Galatasaray and league leaders Trabzonspor as well this season), they do have a serious look about them.

While Ekong’s stock has taken a beating this season - both at club and international level - Awaziem’s star has shone brighter. On Saturday, he was a beast in the air, he made crucial interventions and still found the opportunity to showcase his long passing out from defence, a skill of his which has increasingly come to the fore this year.

It is not all positive, of course. If it was, he would not, with the kindest of intentions, be playing his club football in Turkey. There is an occasional lack of composure when making clearances, and his front-foot style, while often successful, does lead him to give away fouls a little unnecessarily. He can be overcome by skill when faced up in one-on-one situations as well.

However, his ability and calmness in possession, allied to his superior tenacity when marking, mean he is a serious candidate for a start in the event that Ekong continues to find game time difficult to come by.

At the weekend, Frank Onyeka scored his first Premier League goal for Brentford since joining in the summer from sister club Midtjylland. Or, at least he thought he had: his deflected shot would eventually be credited as a Jamal Lascelles own goal.

The Nigerian midfielder came off the bench at St James’ Park, a slightly unusual brief considering he had started seven of the Bees’ 11 games before Saturday. His adaptation to life in England has been a slow one, and there is a sense that he has not quite shown all he is capable of. While that is understandable on account of the quality disparity between the leagues of England and Denmark, it is more on account of Brentford’s peculiar style that he has struggled.

The newly-promoted club have held their own with a direct brand of football that has made them competitive, but is far removed from what Onyeka was used to at Midtjylland, where the play was a little more considered in possession. As such, Brentford’s matches are quite end-to-end, and there is little avenue for the midfielders to do much more than help the team challenge physically in the middle of the park and chug up and down the pitch without the ball.

Of course, when you move to a stronger league as a young player, there is a strong likelihood the conditions will not all be to your tastes. Therein lies the challenge of playing at the elite level: you prove you belong by adapting your game to stay relevant and impactful. 

We started with one Club Brugge alumnus, so let us finish with another. David Okereke scored his second goal in as many Serie A matches at the weekend, once again to secure an improbable win for impressively turned-out by qualitatively-challenged Venezia, this time against high-flying Bologna. Or, at least they were until the Nigerian forward poked a hole in their balloon.

So far this season, the 24-year-old has scored four goals. Two things have stood out about his contributions. The first is their significance to the result: three have been winners (for reference, Venezia have only won four matches this season), one the match opener. The other is the sheer beauty and variety of the goals: from his coast-to-coast run against Empoli, to his postage stamp curler against Sassuolo, to his ‘monkey post’ finish against Roma, and most recently his nifty dink over the onrushing goalkeeper for the points against the Rossoblu.

His ability to play all across the front may distract from it, but Okereke is one hell of a finisher.