Don Pacifico But when you compare him to Isak, you also take into account Isak's ability to create his own chances, his inventiveness, that comes out loud and clear from the shot compilation you shared.
But this is just something you're making up out of thin air. The stats tell the opposite story. Gyökeres creates more chances both for himself and his teammates than Isak, coming in at 2.1 chances per game which is the highest for any striker in Europe. He scores more, he creates more and he assists more, and it has been that way at both club and national team level for the last couple of years. He tops the portuguese league for chances created per game, for expected goals, actual goals, and he's among the top three for completed dribbles.
Here's how he compares to Sesko this season (I swear the dialogue in here makes it sound like the heatmaps are reversed):
People talk about Nunez, but Nunez scored exactly half as much in his last two seasons in Portugal and assisted less than half as much. No one compared his mentality to Cristiano Ronaldo's, no one wanted to build statues when he left. He's not considered a big name in Primeira Liga history.
I've made a point of watching Gyökeres closely fo the last year or so because when he started producing the insane numbers two years ago I figured the same as you guys: it's a fluke, the numbers are padded, it's a shit league, he can't be this good because his technique seems too average. Then I saw him beat 5-6 players on his own while running the length of the pitch and scoring against Belgium after Creuff-turning the last defender, and it reminded me of Thierry at Bernabeu:
Then I saw him do basically the same thing again for Sporting a week later.
I'll leave this conversation because I realise I look biased (I've got @flobaba doing the flag-waving now anyway!), but I don't think it has dawned on too many of you that it's not Gyökeres who should be thrilled about being linked with Arsenal. This is a calibre of player that we'd have no chance whatsoever at siging normally. One of the bigger clubs in the food chain would have taken him straight away like when Haaland left Dortmund. I want Arsenal to sign him because I still have feelings for this club, but if I'm honest I also think the club is not good enough. This is the kind of player that league and Champions League winners go and sign after a winning season, clubs that demand titles and elite players.
