Osimhen's timing: Will the Super Eagles forward ever get it right?

Victor Osimhen undoubtedly packs a punch and the best is yet to come.

This season has seen the Napoli striker dominate Serie A in his third year with the Partenopei after two decent-to-good campaigns in Italy’s top-flight, where he leads the race for the Capocannoniere with 11 gameweeks remaining.

Under Luciano Spalletti, the Nigeria international has shone for the Azzurri, taking his game to the next level with deadly and remarkable finishing.

The forward is outdoing his expected numbers by a slightly higher margin than he did in year two in Naples, with 21 league goals already the highest tally he has ever achieved. And the centre-forward is expected to add to that tally in the campaign’s denouement.

Be that as it may, Osimhen is far from perfect, and a penchant for running into space beyond the opponent’s line of defence leaves the risk of being caught offside when his timing is rushed.

Indeed, this was an intermittent source of frustration in Friday’s 1-0 defeat by Guinea-Bissau, where the West African giant’s top marksman was caught offside four times. This was even more conspicuous because no other Super Eagle was flagged offside in 90 minutes, and the away side’s tally in the game’s entirety was five.

We scrutinise all four situations again, analysing if the centre-forward was too eager or if passes into him were delayed.

Five minutes into Friday’s game, Alex Iwobi’s lofted pass from the left wing finds Samuel Chukwueze inside the box, and the Villarreal man is one-v-one against his marker Fali Cande.

Osimhen, already positioned on the blind side of centre-back Sori Mane, expects a chipped ball from the winger, but the wide attacker delays with an extra feint...

 ...and the Napoli striker is already beyond the Guinea-Bissau backline when the ball comes.

He immediately gestures to the Villarreal man to release the ball quicker.

Nearly halfway into the opening half, Iwobi finds Chukwueze just outside the penalty area...

...and the winger sends the ball into the box from the left half-space after beating Moreto Cassama. But Osimhen had impatiently drifted offside despite looking across the line the whole time.

If the Napoli marksman could be excused for the initial incident, the 21st-minute event was down to being overeager.

Just over a minute passed when Nigeria’s central striker was flagged offside for the third time on Friday.

Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho had combined with a one-two down the left flank...

...and the Everton man drifted infield with Ademola Lookman and Osimhen awaiting a through-ball...

...but the ex-Arsenal man misses his moment to release the pass, and eventually plays in the striker who could no longer hold his run in that action.

With Jose Peseiro's troops already chasing the game following Mama Balde’s 29th-minute goal, the Super Eagles needed to show something different after the break.

But Osimhen was caught offside for the fourth time less than two minutes after the interlude. On this occasion, he may have been a tad unlucky.

Iwobi received possession inside the Guinea-Bissau half and spotted the striker around the D, releasing a pass to the 24-year-old, who appears level with Djurtus’ last defender Mane when the ball is played.

Unsurprisingly, the demonstrative forward gestured to the linesman on the far side that he was level with the visiting side’s line.

The game state meant Baciro Cande’s men sat deeper as they looked to hold on to their slender advantage throughout the second half, consequently failing to catch Nigeria’s top marksman offside for the rest of the match.

Even though a couple of Friday’s incidents had more to do with Osimhen’s teammates not being on the striker’s wavelength, the broader sample size implies an undesirable keenness in the timing of his runs.

“Osimhen was often offside because he was so eager that he started the runs early,” explained Spalletti in October 2022 after a Champions League game with Ajax in Naples.

The numbers show that Osimhen has been caught offside 27 times in Serie A, outranking everyone in the Italian top division, even though he falls to second among players averaging 10 games and above when per 90 metrics are examined.

It is doubly striking when you consider the four games missed by the Napoli forward from September to October last year, even if it also highlights the striker’s inclination to play on the shoulder of the last defender.

This has its drawbacks, especially for someone with the Nigeria international’s speed and athleticism.

Several instances abound for the Partenopei frontman, with that Champions League game with Ajax last October, the 2-0 success over Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany and a recent league game at Empoli. 

Osimhen found the back of the net in those games, but he could have had more had he not been excessively eager.

The standout moment playing for the Super Eagles came in the World Cup playoff meeting with Ghana in March 2022, when a goal that would have put the three-time African champions ahead on aggregate was chalked off after a VAR review.

Osimhen has undoubtedly improved in leaps and bounds in the intervening 12 months but still intermittently struggles with timing. Will he ever get it right? Will there ever be perfection or anything close to it?