Viktor Gyokeres: Page 114 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Viktor Gyokeres

QuincyAbeyie

Qwiss Yeah I don't think Welbeck is good enough for us either.

Qwiss

QuincyAbeyie so we have to go out and sign Haaland then, got ya.

JazzG

QuincyAbeyie same amount of open play goals as Richarlson, Ollie Watkins and Sesko…

QuincyAbeyie

Qwiss If that's what you think.

Tactics

Merino has impressed me the most among our CF options. He enabled us to play fluid and effective football. We could hit it long and he’ll win headers or bring it down and link play, he also dropped deep to create numerical advantage (like Ode does) to help us play out of the back, he could see and execute passes like most midfielders do, he’s a brilliant header of the ball and a quality finisher.

I think going forward we should consider him as a full time CF option and not just as an emergency option. Just our luck that he’s injured right now.

Lukazan

Tactics Not sure about a full time striker role but none the less he's been a miss for sure. With his tendency to grab goals it's not unreasonable 1 or 2 of our poor results could well have been wins with him on the pitch.

Tactics

Lukazan I know he was brought in as a midfielder and he had some good games in that position this season but I’d say he’s generally been much better as a CF in an Arsenal shirt.

Ray

Guys we have the best offence and are the best team Europe. What’s with all the negativity.

est

Ray if it weren't just for those pesky opponents with their 5-4-1 low block formations. waves fist angrily

Mirth

est can’t believe they copied our 5-4-1 formations!

Meatwad

JazzG
it must be demoralizing to play with someone who is clearly not suitable for this level. i remember when people were saying thierry was just a hater for pointing out how ridiculously bad his touch was against bilbao.

JazzG

Backs up what you see on the pitch, struggles to get the ball under control.

Meatwad Remember when our fans were moaning at Saka? Look at how they trust someone like Dowman, that is one of the best indicators you will see on the pitch, if your team mates trust you with the ball.

awooga83

I think I understood we kind of had to try and recruit in the summer and the rationale of going the more finished player even with the reservations but I think it's clear he's not a good enough player to lead the line for arsenal. His technical level is too poor to bring the ball down and hold the ball up he's scored some goals but nothing like what we would have hoped and despite his physique he's totally useless at the physical battles with defenders. You have to try this sometimes but I think we should be looking to get something better next season.

JazzG

awooga83 Spot on, this is nothing personal against him. As a sub player I would have no problem with him but he simply is not good enough to lead the line for us. We either needed someone better than Havertz or something with the potential to be better and we did neither.

Unlike City who can just write off £60m signings we can't so this signing will have consequences for our finances.

Don Pacifico

At the same time though, we had to bring someone (anyone) in for sheer numbers. So I understand signing him on that level.

But he shouldn't be first choice. His technical ability and balance are frustrating enough as it is but if his teammates are avoiding passing to him, then he's effectively a millstone around the neck of our attack rather than someone who helps us overcome our limitations.

Was refreshing to hear Tim Stillman on the Arsecast this week say that when we talk about our attacking problems, there's one thing we're tiptoeing around and that's the limitations of our starting CF. Feels like we've gone backwards vs the last three seasons and I didn't think that was possible. That's not all down to Gyokeres but he's part of the problem.

awooga83

Same heard that podcast as well and I agree about we needed to try to do something it just hasn't worked. But it's a big problem when we've been under pressure we can't try to find him as an outlet and he can't do the link up that we need.

Qwiss

His team mates avoiding passing to him is the same sort of thinking as Odegaard is saving himself for Norway. They don't pass to him because they are too safe and some of them have no vision.

Don Pacifico

awooga83

Yeah there may be aspects of that but he's just got no technical skill he can't trap the ball he's got a shit touch that's enough of a reason not to pass to him.

lorddulaarsenal

I like Gyokeres. There’s certainly a lot of good aspects to his game but I recognise the weaker parts of his game.

I don’t think we’ve seen the best version of him. Certainly not the player who played against us for Sporting. I think it’s a conditioning issue.

He arrived this summer overweight and he’s not been able to get back to the fitness levels he was previously at.

He seems thicker set in the legs and is therefore less agile and it hinders his ability to turn, evade challenges and find a yard for himself

It’s partly why we haven’t seen him score the types of goals he netted in Portugal. Granted Premier League defenders are better able to close space and win duels but the 2025 Gyokeres would have achieved more this season.

Don Pacifico

lorddulaarsenal He arrived this summer overweight and he’s not been able to get back to the fitness levels he was previously at.

If this is an issue, he's had a whole season now to get fit. I don't see how this holds up.

lorddulaarsenal He seems thicker set in the legs and is therefore less agile and it hinders his ability to turn, evade challenges and find a yard for himself

If you watch his goals in Portugal, he rarely had to work that hard to gain a yard of space because defences weren't as deep and didn't mark him as tightly (which masked his technical limitations). As the space available has shrunk in the PL, what it's shown up is how many touches he needs to get a shot away and how lacking his close ball control is.

lorddulaarsenal Granted Premier League defenders are better able to close space and win duels but the 2025 Gyokeres would have achieved more this season.

Again, I'm really not sure this is conditioning. We saw similar when Baptista joined - a beast in La Liga but fell over a lot when under greater physical pressure in the Prem. When you couple that with his shortcomings in tight spaces, that's why he's not scoring the goals he did in Portugal.

Kel Varnsen

lorddulaarsenal He arrived this summer overweight and he’s not been able to get back to the fitness levels he was previously at.

Not able to in 8-9 months?

As for his poor performances here, it is probably a combination of his limitations as a player and how little we play to his (few) strengths.

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