Viktor, I owe you a huge apology for my intermittent slander across the season. I haven't been a big fan but you are really proving me wrong these last few games.
Certainly feels like something has clicked both with him and his timing of runs but also with the team looking for him in positions that play perfectly to his strengths. We aren't seeing as many long balls to a stationary Gyokeres backing down his defender, which is clearly not his strength especially when he gets an awful whistle while getting mugged. Instead, we are hitting him on diagonals into the channels where he can get a defender on his hip and hold the ball up much more effectively. It's frustrating to think we had this option all year and just never took it but I do think that type of adjustment to a new player/playing style goes both ways and he's done a great job of building that trust and cohesion with the squad over the season. I'm getting to the point where I feel like he almost needs to be our focal point over the last three games of the season. Hope he starts again on Sunday and we get it to him early and often in the channels against those West Ham CB's.
His emergence and more importantly, our ability to play to his strengths, have really started to alter my calculations on what we need this summer too. Like other said above, a Jesus replacement is much more needed than any ST reinforcement- Alvarez or Kroupi to play off Gyokeres would be spectacular in this current setup.
