Teessiders’ is banging Very own Aktion man in the goals again
A REJUVENATED CHUBA IS
CHUBA Akpom is the first Boro player for five years to score eight goals by the middle of November.
The reborn striker has matched the achievement of Britt Assombalonga, who netted eight times in the same period for Garry Monk’s side in 2017.
Akpom has been an absolute revelation this season, picking up the cudgels from the very start and at the same time proving a lot of people wrong.
Ironically, his opportunity might never have come along had Chris Wilder been able to put together a new five-man pool of strikers when the season kicked off.
Akpom, fresh from a season-long loan with Greek side PAOK, could easily have become the forgotten man of Teesside.
Fortunately, Wilder was forced to give him his chance to make up the numbers. The Greek air did him some good because Akpom looked a different player from the off.
If not for a frustrating injury which put him on the sidelines for several weeks he would surely have reached double figures by this stage of the campaign.
It was great to see
Michael Carrick keep faith with
Akpom following his arrival at the end of October.
The Londoner has been the answer to the new boss’ prayers and managed to up his game even further, scoring in each of Carrick’s first four games in charge.
He looks set to remain a key player once the campaign resumes, revelling in the slightly deeper role which he has been assigned by Carrick.
Akpom cost £2.75m when he was originally signed from PAOK, which is considerably less than the £15m which Boro forked out for record signing Assombalonga.
Britt’s arrival for such a huge fee was a show of intent by the Teessiders after they had been relegated from the Premier League in 2017.
Chairman Steve Gibson was determined the club should do everything in its power to bounce straight back at the first attempt.
Assombalonga was seen as the man who might lead that charge.
The Democratic Republic of the
Congo international was an orthodox centre-forward with a superb goalsper-games record with both Peterborough and Nottingham Forest.
He made an immediate impact with Boro, his eighth goal coming in a 3-1 win at Hull City on October 31, which was a time when Akpom was just starting to get back into top gear this season.
Assombalonga went on to topscore with 15 goals in 2017-18, which is a tally Akpom would surely like to beat following his recent electric run of form.
Two years before Assombalonga’s achievement, Cristhian Stuani went very close to scoring eight early goals, falling just one short.
The Uruguayan international was a very astute signing from Espanyol by Aitor Karanka and immediately adapted to life in English football.
He started scoring goals from the start, notably in the League Cup and showed himself to be effective both in the air and on the ground.
If there is a negative from Stuani’s spell at Boro it is that he was not used sufficiently as an orthodox striker, particularly in his second season when Boro were in the Premier League.
He was a natural in front of goal and surely would have scored many more times for the club if used regularly as a centre-forward.
Stuani’s special ability as a goalscorer has been fully emphasised since his return to Spain, where he joined newly-promoted Girona.
He scored enough goals to help them avoid the drop at the first time of asking.
He quickly became Girona’s alltime top goalscorer in La Liga and, at the age of 36, is still playing.
While scoring eight goals for Boro before mid-november is something one expects of a decent striker, the tally has been achieved once in the
Championship for the club by a central midfielder.
That was skipper Grant Leadbitter, who was a wizard in front of goal in 2014-15.
Leadbitter’s total included four penalties but it was still some accomplishment, especially as he was regarded largely as a defensive midfielder.
Leadbitter was a very astute freetransfer signing by Tony Mowbray from Ipswich Town, who had paid Sunderland £2.6m for his services three years earlier.
Leadbitter added both strength and composure to the Boro midfield.
He was a key player in both the Mowbray and Karanka teams, going on to play more than 200 league games for the club.
He was a natural competitor who supported his back line well but he also liked to get forward and scored a few screamers from the edge of the box.
Leadbitter later rejoined his original club Sunderland before hanging up his boots and it is great he is back at the Boro as an individual development coach as part of the Academy staff.
Twelve months before Leadbitter’s goalscoring heroics, popular winger Albert Adomah enjoyed a purple patch in front of goal.
Adomah was another Mowbray signing who made an immediate impact, scoring seven times by midnovember following his £1m arrival from Bristol City.
He was a very traditional winger, always looking to take on his opposing left-back and get in crosses, while being equally quick to get into the box and look for goalscoring opportunities.
Karanka eventually converted him into a deep lying right-sided midfielder but Adomah was always at his best when pushing forward.
Adomah is another who is still enjoying his playing career in his mid-thirties by regularly turning out in the Championship for Queen’s Park Rangers.
The best mid-november goalscoring achievement by a Boro player in the Championship era is the ten goals scored by Marvin Emnes in the 2011-12 campaign.
Emnes was an expensive £3.2m signing by Gareth Southgate from
Sparta Rotterdam but disappointed early on because he was very slow to make an impact in this country.
The Dutchman was eventually loaned out to Swansea City by Gordon Strachan but was brought back by Mowbray, who weaved his magic wand to have Emnes firing on all cylinders.
Emnes was often utilised as a wide player but proved to be a very good finisher inside the box where he was often quickest to react.
He was the outstanding player for Mowbray in the manager’s first full season back on Teesside.
His ten goals at the start of the campaign included a hat trick in a 3-0 win at Walsall in the first round of the League Cup.
Emnes went on to score 18 goals during the season, an impressive tally which has been bettered during a Championship campaign only by Patrick Bamford, who scored 19 in his first season with the Teessiders.
Unfortunately this special season did not kick start a new beginning for Emnes, whose goals were few and far between in later spells with Swansea and Blackburn.
Although he currently trails by two goals in the mid-november tallies, it would be great to think Akpom could be inspired to try at the very least to emulate Emnes’ final total from 2011-12.
While Emnes’ mid-november ten goals remains the best, second place during Boro’s time in the Championship goes to Adam Johnson with nine.
Manchester City paid £7m to sign Johnson in the January.
However, Boro are unlikely to be under pressure to sell Akpom should a big club come sniffing this January so hopefully he will continue banging in the goals a’plenty.