Following months of deliberation over their preferred option, Arsenal finally pulled the trigger on Sporting striker Viktor Gyokeres as their sixth summer signing. But who is the Swede, what will he bring to the side and why is he costing (up to) £65 million.
Phil Costa reports.
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Despite more information being available to us than ever, Arsenal found themselves in an increasingly difficult position to recruit their new centre forward this summer. We don’t just have metrics – the metrics have metrics – which can tell you everything from players’ breathing patterns during REM sleep to what colour underwear they perform best in. But heading into the transfer window, there were names but no obvious targets; no sure things in an extremely shallow striker market.
Alexander Isak was the dream signing but expensive and tough to wrestle out of Newcastle (although that could change), Benjamin Sesko is full of potential yet very much a project, while the ship had sailed on Ollie Watkins after a failed January bid – which leads us to Viktor Gyokeres. Things never felt serious with him despite some links, although when The Athletic published this article (£) in March about Andrea Berta being a “firm admirer” of the forward; my Spidey senses were tingling.
The Italian had just been appointed as sporting director and this information felt very pointed, totally intentional and here we are four months later with Gyokeres in red and white. He’s the man Arsenal have decided to gamble on after scoring 97 goals in 102 matches for Sporting and looking at those numbers it shouldn’t feel like a gamble at all – but this is a story of hard work and perseverance for a player whose career has reached its zenith, when it was once in real danger of fizzling out.
So what convinced the club to push the red button? It’s important to note that things haven’t always gone well for Gyokeres, who despite being picked up by Brighton from the Swedish second division had struggled to settle on various loans in Germany and the Championship, until Coventry and Mark Robins came along. His mentality shifted, he bulked up and through brute force kept scoring for The Sky Blues until Sporting entered the conversation and beat Premier League clubs to his signature.
According to Robins, the Swede wanted the Sporting move and “never wavered” until he got it, wanting to prove himself in Europe but also in a league where strikers have previously taken their game to new levels. Beyond the goals (and there’s lots of them to talk about), you can see Gyokeres plays with an unforgiving, refreshing sense of relentlessness. He attacks the goal like he’s got a personal vendetta and will run hard, shoot hard and fight defenders all game until he scores. It won’t always look pretty but that single-mindedness has effectively transformed his career – and it’s a quality sorely lacking in this Arsenal side.
That applies to his finishing as well, which can be nuanced and delicate, with little dinks over the goalkeeper or placed efforts into the far corner, but more often than not he’s putting his foot through the ball and whacking shots towards goal as powerfully as possible. Looking beyond his ruthless finishing, what makes Gyokeres such an interesting option is his suitability for transition-ball. Premier League football is becoming increasingly intense and although most teams are comfortable sitting in low blocks, space does occasionally reveal itself and capitalising on those moments is crucial. The 27-year-old is constantly moving across the front-line, bobbing and weaving between defenders (usually with a left channel bias) before springing into action and darting in behind.
According to SkillCorner data, Gyokeres made 85 sprints in behind the opposition defensive line last season, which are defined as runs at an average pace of 25km/h or more. That was more than double any other striker in the same league; Samu Aghehowa (Porto) was closest with 41, and 24 more than Nicolas Jackson who led the Premier League in that same metric. As referenced in this Scouted Football breakdown, no other forward in Europe could match his sprint repeatability (nearly 20 per game) and only five strikers were able to reach their top speed quicker, highlighting his almost robotic desire to keep going and going.
Sporting and Coventry often used the striker as a pressure valve, someone who could be left alone on halfway to wrestle with defenders, fight for loose balls and eventually get his side up the pitch. As pointed out in this piece by Lewis Ambrose, Gyokeres took 25 shots following a successful take on last season which was bettered by only three players across Europe’s top five leagues: Lamine Yamal, Vincius Jr and Jamie Gittens – who are all wingers.
He welcomes that isolation and not only can he create chances for himself. Only Mohamed Salah, Vinicius Jr and Jeremy Doku averaged more carries into the penalty area per 90 last season than Gyokeres (3.11) – but platform others who could exploit the space and chaos he leaves behind. It’s worth noting that Arsenal were one of the worst top flight teams when it came to converting high turnovers into shots and goals last season, could the Swede add some much-needed conviction in those situations?
Naturally, there are some question marks over the player and this move, most of which are centred around where his goals have come from over the last two seasons and who they have been scored against, as opposed to how many. The Primeira Liga is very lopsided in terms of quality, and Opta ranked it the second-most unequal league (out of 30 they analysed across world football) in terms of average rating; which is effectively the difference in quality between the top side and everybody else. Sporting regularly beat up on lesser opposition and Gyokeres does too, scoring 37 of his 39 league goals last season against teams in fifth place or lower – 13 of which came against the bottom four alone.
Only two of his 39 league goals last season came against the top four, both of which were against Braga. He didn’t score against Benfica or Porto. However, his underlying numbers are relatively consistent regardless of opposition and his two-year spell at the Jose Alvalade Stadium has seen 15 goal contributions (10G, 5A) against their big three rivals, with a further seven (5G, 2A) coming in nine Champions League appearances.
Opta also released their annual Power Rankings article in June, where they attempt to determine the “global hierarchy” of football based on different metrics and data. They ended up ranking the Portuguese top flight below the Championship and Belgian Pro League – and concluded that 11 of 18 teams in Portugal are of a similar level to those in League One. This will change drastically in the Premier League against the strongest, quickest defenders but also more organised defences in general.
For all the excitement about his finishing, physicality, and running in behind – it’s obvious this move presents a major step up in quality for Gyokeres. There’s always that lingering feeling in the back of your mind about whether goal machines from Portugal, or the Netherlands can translate their output to a higher level because for every Radamel Falcao, there’s a Jackson Martinez, Islam Slimani or Mario Jardel.
But this might not be a bad thing for Arsenal, because those goals or points don’t count for any less and it’s in those games against “lesser opposition” where the team have struggled – especially when tasked with breaking down low or mid blocks. More than anything, we’ve needed another centre forward option who can occupy defences and add more varied threat after showing the same attacking face to this league for too long now. It’s probably the most important area of the pitch to renew and refresh, and being able to power up effectively from the bench is something we’ve lacked to turn draws into wins.
There are other technical issues in need of polishing; like his back-to-goal play, for example. Part of his appeal is that he’s a big, battering ram of a centre forward, but that also makes him quite stiff when the more intricate stuff comes along. I don’t think his technical security is that great when receiving under pressure, he’s a bit bouncy and bobbly, the ball doesn’t always stick to him, but it might not be a huge issue with others in the squad proving more capable when dropping into deeper areas.
Others have pointed out a slowness in getting shots off at times, but while nothing obvious has stood out to me, it’s clear he won’t have time to take a touch or two in the Premier League should the ball drop his way. As mentioned earlier, the striker can be quite clunky and heavy-footed in tight spaces, but his job will mostly involve being a nuisance, running in behind and leading the line in a way others cannot.
For various reasons, Arsenal were too easy to defend against last season, slow in their approach play and painfully predictable which hampered their ability to go the distance with Liverpool despite reaching a Champions League semi-final. Gyokeres isn’t so much a shot in the arm for those issues, more smelling salts laced with amphetamines. He is all-action, full throttle and wholly focused on doing one thing – scoring goals.
I found myself leaning towards Sesko as “the guy” this summer because he profiled similarly to Kai Havertz, while teasing you with a unique physical profile and potential of what could be should he put everything together. But it was never a big enough gap to ignore what Gyokeres could provide this group and the more you think about it, maybe having someone different suits us better than having more of the same.
There’s definitely something to be said for his mentality and how much he wants to be here, how much he backs himself, how much he wants to succeed and we can’t take that for granted.
Whether we like it or not, come Old Trafford on matchday one, forward signings are the ones you’re excited about seeing on the teamsheet. Already we’ve seen his celebration being mimicked in the crowd, Myles Lewis-Skelly couldn’t hide his excitement either and someone coming in with this reputation or aura (ew) makes a difference. Worrying about his first touch or how he creates separation in a crowded penalty area can wait.
Sporting ended up playing hardball but Arsenal and Mikel Arteta finally have their man, their flat-pack bully and goals are on the agenda. Sometimes when you’re struggling to pick the lock, there’s always the option to kick it down.
