Viktor Gyokeres is a battering ram of a striker with an absurd scoring record. Is he what Arsenal need?

New York Times

18 hours ago

At last, Arsenal are closing in on their No 9.
As reported by The Athletic on Sunday, Mikel Arteta's side are in advanced talks with Sporting CP over a deal to sign Viktor Gyokeres.
Discussions continue over the transfer fee but the situation is progressing towards a conclusion, with personal terms in place on a proposed five-year contract.
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To say that Gyokeres' stint at Sporting has been a resounding success would be an understatement. Two seasons have passed in a blur of stomping channel runs and emphatic finishes, with the 27-year-old racking up 97 goals in just over 8,400 minutes — the equivalent of 93 full games.
But with two league titles and two Silver Ball top-scorer awards safely wrapped up in his suitcase, the Sweden international is in search of a new challenge. Arsenal have emerged as the most likely destination, their lack of goals from a recognised centre-forward well documented as they chase an elusive Premier League crown.
The numbers look sensational — his frightening physical profile and an unerring ability to thump a football immensely satisfying on the eye — but there are still burning questions. How does his all-or-nothing game translate to the Premier League? And if it does, can he be the kind of striker that Arsenal need?
The Athletic analyses his time at Sporting to find out…
Gyokeres' quality in front of goal is clear, but much of what he has been able to achieve in Portugal stems from relentless work without the ball.
His approach to the No 9 role is uncompromising, centred on repeated intensity and power that most defenders simply can't match.
Tracking data from SkillCorner can help us to quantify that movement, comparing the frequency with which he makes specific off-ball runs with strikers across Europe's top seven leagues. As we can see, Gyokeres does most of his work moving forward, rarely dropping deep to connect the play, instead looking to be direct and destructive whenever his team-mates have the ball.
He also loves to target wide areas, more than you'd expect for such a prolific centre-forward. But Gyokeres thrives in open space, able to drive his team down the flanks and create danger all by himself.
It's not just that Gyokeres is desperate to attack the space, it's the speed, and the often drastic nature of his movement that makes him so difficult to stop.
According to SkillCorner, he made 85 sprints in behind the opposition defensive line last season, runs at an average pace of 25km/h or more. That's more than double any other striker in the division — Porto's Samu Aghehowa is closest with 41 — and 24 more than the Premier League leader in that metric, Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson.
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In the below example against Boavista, we can see just how active he is across the front line, often taking it upon himself to charge into the space if team-mates aren't prepared.
After a quick turnover in possession, Sporting move the ball out to the left. Gyokeres sets off without hesitation, hitting full speed to offer himself for the pass down the line.
Even if defenders could keep up, such extreme movement forces them to pass him along — centre-backs don't really want to follow strikers across the width of the pitch and lose their position completely.
It's in those moments of uncertainty that Gyokeres pounces, stealing the extra yard in the milliseconds it takes for his new marker to react to the oncoming train.
Gyokeres reaches the pass and finds himself in his favourite position; bearing down on a sole defender from the left flank. He can go either way in this situation, but chooses to chop onto his right with Ibrahima Camara closing off the outside.
His touch is slightly heavy, but Gyokeres contorts his body to make sure he gets over the shot, beaming the ball into the bottom right-hand corner.
It's one of the secrets to his success, hidden away in the biomechanics — a strong, powerful frame to barge into goalscoring positions, but springy and elastic when he needs to be, able to wrap his body around shots to consistently ensure the best connection all across the box.
Just as above, Gyokeres will often drift over to the left with his team on the ball, something that could appeal to Arsenal.
Last season, just 32.9 per cent of their attacking touches came in the left third, the lowest proportion of any Premier League team. They were unable to progress the ball with the same efficiency as they have managed with Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Ben White on the opposite side.
The Swede probably won't inspire intricate football and touch-tight triangles, but his work rate and forward momentum will certainly give Mikel Arteta's side more of a presence down that side should they need to shake things up.
Here's a fine example of his one-man channel running against Austrian side Sturm Graz in the Champions League, after another high-intensity, in-to-out run to ensure he provides the out-ball option.
Gyokeres receives the pass from Zeno Debast, before rolling his man and driving inside, dodging the recovery runs of three defenders as he shimmies around the goalkeeper and scores. A goal from nothing, without a team-mate in sight.
In similarly devastating fashion, Gyokeres is quickly on the move as Morten Hjulmand nicks the ball back in midfield against RB Leipzig.
Gyokeres isn't fussy about where he likes his through balls, which allows Daniel Braganca to spin and release quickly after he receives the ball in frame two.
This time, defender Willi Orban blocks the striker from cutting inside and shows him onto his left, but Gyokeres is still able to finish confidently on his weaker side at the near post, just seven seconds after his team-mate regained possession inside their own half.
While he may not find as much open space to run into in the Premier League, up against the kind of deeper blocks that Arsenal routinely face, he can certainly help them to maximise transitional moments after a quick recovery in midfield.
Only Bournemouth, Newcastle and Liverpool won the ball more often outside their own defensive third than Arteta's side last season, but as the graph below illustrates, only 6.7 per cent of those resulted in a shot within 10 seconds, the third-lowest rate in the division.
Gyokeres at least gives them the option to speed things up and break quickly — able to chase down a long pass and barge his way into dangerous areas unlike any player that Arsenal currently possess.
It's not just coordinated counter-attacks: Gyokeres' battling spirit keeps defenders on their toes, moving his team up the pitch by hook or by crook.
Here he is underneath a booted clearance against AVS, for example, holding off his marker before chesting it across for Francisco Trincao to bring it forward.
Having dragged a centre-back into midfield, he is then typically quick to target the space in behind, picking up the return pass on the edge of the box and side-footing into the corner.
Against Benfica, Gyokeres creates a goal for team-mate Geny Catamo after ambling out to the flanks to receive a throw in.
Arsenal often like to target the byline with their throw-ins, and seeing Gyokeres shield the defender, surge into the box and pick out a cross will have set-piece coach Nicolas Jover rubbing his hands together with glee.
If Gyokeres is to succeed at the top of a possession-dominant, Premier League side, he'll likely need to be more than just a runner. Not only will he face some of the stingiest defenders in world football — some of whom are capable of matching him stride for stride — but there will be days that the opposition frustrate Arsenal, sitting deep and blocking out the spaces he likes to attack with his pace.
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This is where his physicality and movement in the box comes in, having already shown in the Championship that he can mix it with the big defenders and create spaces to strike the ball cleanly.
Here he is making a nuisance of himself against Chaves, grappling with 6ft 2in (187cm) centre-back Ygor Nogueira while a neat move unfolds down the right.
Full-back Ricardo Esgaio makes a dart into the box, and pulls a cross behind Gyokeres, but the Swede has managed to pin his centre-back by the time the ball comes in.
Again, he can go either way here, but lets it roll across his body and finishes with his left on the swivel, showing he can provide that presence in the box that Arsenal sometimes miss.
In the Premier League last season, only four teams attempted more crosses from open play than Arsenal. Just one side — Leicester City — converted a lower proportion of those into chances (Arsenal's was 10.2 per cent, Leicester's was 10 per cent).
Despite his flying runs across the final third, nearly a quarter of Gyokeres' touches last season fell inside the penalty area, his energy and anticipation to sniff out the chances allowing him to be the all-action runner and close-range poacher all at once.
He can score the scrappy goals, with acceleration in tight spaces getting him into promising areas to bundle home from close range. Look how quickly he is able to escape from his defender in the clip below, punishing any lapses of concentration with sharp movement towards goal.
One area where Gyokeres isn't prolific is in the air. He didn't score a single header in league action last season — unexpected given his imposing frame — although only around 12.5 per cent of his shots came with his head.
It's not a glaring weakness — Gyokeres has seen some commendable efforts saved — but a few high-profile chances have flashed past the post, including this late opportunity to win it against Arouca.
As with all high-volume strikers, Gyokeres isn't immune to an off day in front of goal, but there is a clear ability with both feet to find the corners with precision from all angles.
This finish on international duty against Azerbaijan is the kind of goal that drives his healthy over-performance relative to his expected-goals numbers, invaluable if he can dig something like this out in a scrappy, congested game.
Again, the off-ball movement is sharp to get in front of his man, but more impressive is how Gyokeres is able to find the corner with a crisp, low finish into the far corner on his weaker side.
The elephant in the room, of course, is the quality of opposition.
While the Primeira Liga was ranked as the eighth-strongest league in the world in the most recent update of Opta's Power Rankings, 11 of the 18 teams involved ranked outside the top 300 last season. Relegated Boavista, who Gyokeres put four past in April to practically seal the title, are down at 786.
There's a comparative case study to be made with Erling Haaland, similarly emphatic in his final season at Borussia Dortmund, when he crashed home 22 Bundesliga goals with a similar mix of brute force and power finishing.
The Norwegian is clearly operating with reduced space in English football — it's been a while since we saw his signature, breakaway goal — but Haaland has still been able to use his freakish physicality to outmuscle and outmanoeuvre defenders close to goal, maintaining an incredibly healthy goalscoring rate for a more controlled, pass-heavy side.
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Gyokeres' success likely depends on his ability to scrap with defenders and find those yards of space in the box. Encouragingly, a two-year spell with Coventry showed that he has what to takes against tough centre-backs, scoring some breathtaking goals — such as this strike against Millwall below — after holding off a defender, shifting the ball and finding the corners.
Gyokeres is a stampede of a centre-forward, full-throttle his only gear. He would give Arsenal something different, and if they are to finally end a 20-year wait for a title, a little variety can't hurt.
(Bernardo)