VIKTOR TWO FACE
UNLOCKING VG14 IS TWO WAY STREET
How are we all doing, Legion?
It's pretty much the first time since the season started that I've not had to do a midweek game preview. I have the whole week off until Friday, before my Everton preview is due.
Not gonna lie. I know how our players must feel. I am glad of the small break.
But in saying that ....The devil makes work for idle hands, so, as promised, here is my take on the hot topic of the week amongst the Arsenal fanbase, and that is what to make so far of one Viktor Einar Gyokeres?
Ive been quiet on the subject up until now. Mainly because I wanted a large enough sample size before jumping to conclusions, and with him getting injured, I've had to wait.
This is by no means a Viktor hit-piece. I've been supportive of him throughout the season.
Regular visitors to the site know that I'm not about tearing players or the team down. I will do my usual thing of presenting both sides.
I've split it into two halves— "Self Help" and Help a Brother Out", pretty self-explanatory.
Before I break down what I feel he can do better, I want to start by defending him on this big point that doesn't get talked about enough:
HE MISSED PRE-SEASON TRAINING.
It's a huge, overlooked deal. It's a massive setback when a player doesn't get a full pre-season under their belt. You ask any pro, and they will say it means playing catch-up all season long.
I watch Viktor play, and that's EXACTLY what he looks like, a guy playing catch-up, forever one step off the pace. That's not a talent thing, that's a fitness thing. I watched him plenty last season for Sporting and never thought at any point he lacked explosiveness, power, pace, all the things we were paying top money for.
Missing pre-season hasn't been helped by the fact that he's been out of the side injured, too. Just as he looked to be finding his rhythm with a brace against Atleti, he got hurt away to Burnley, not long after, in a game he scored.
Due to Kai the Guy's no-show since matchday one and Gabi J out of the picture, Viktor, on top of no pre-season, had to immediately carry the load single-handed from week one, without a break, even when he clearly needed a breather. He only eventually got one due to injury, and Merino stepped up.
SELF HELP
The main critique we have of him since his arrival is duel-winning.
In his final season at Sporting, he won 50% of his ground duels and 50.7% of aerial duels. With us, these have dropped to 37.5% and 39.1% and I'm honestly surprised they are that high.
He needs to, I'm not sure how better to say this, 'man the fuck up'. How many times does the ball go up to him, defender at his back, and he falls over and loses possession, then moans at the ref?
There are different factors for this.
The main one is the level of competition. He isn't playing Tondela and Casa Pia anymore. Every side in the Premier League has big, fast, strong, athletic defenders of much better quality.
The second one is WE ARE ARSENAL, WE DON'T GET CHEAP FREE KICKS! Not being disrespectful, but in the Portuguese league, he was a superstar who probably got a lot of soft free kicks because of who he was. Fall over, free kick, no problemo. Over here, he isn't even the biggest star at Arsenal, never mind the Premier League.
The third reason is his technique. Someone pointed out to me that when he receives the ball, he is very upright and straight-backed. Now that I've noticed it, I can't unsee it.
Being so upright means you are easier to push over. It's plain physics. If he bends his posture ever so slightly, drops his knees, pushes his butt out, it automatically pushes the defender backwards, which you can't do while standing straight up. Receiving the ball with your back to the goal isn't all about strength; it's as much about technique and leverage. Such a slight nuance, but it would make a world of difference.
There is also the mental side of it all. The light bulb has to come on at some point. My bro pointed out during the Wolves game that, for ten minutes in the second half (before he got hooked), he was doing exactly what we needed and what all good centre forwards do: getting to the ball first, holding off the defender, keeping possession for the team and transitioning us up the pitch. To say we need to see way more of it is an understatement.
When he does get hold of it, he seems ponderous in possession. The main critique of him before signing was his technical ability. I'm never quite sure what that actually means. With Gyokeres, I think it relates to the fact that it sometimes takes him an age to get the ball under control, look up, see a pass and play it. At times, he looks like a dancer counting his steps rather than instinctively just bang bang natural flow. It never seems to be one or two touches, which slows our attacking momentum.
He has a choice to make, as far as I can see, about his style of play in the future.
My advice? Lose some of the muscle.
Gyökeres came to English football built like a tank, known as a battering-ram-type striker, but maybe, especially in our system of play, we need less muscle and more mobility. I have said many times that he is built like a powerlifter; he's an absolute unit. What good is it doing him/us? He isn't winning battles/duels; it isn't helping him bully defenders physically. Right now, he’s winning fewer scraps than he did in Portugal.
Do you not think that he always looks a bit rigid and stiff? This is a sign that an athlete has overdone it in the weight room. Drop some muscle. Become quicker, more explosive, more flexible, more agile, I think it would do him and us wonders.
I'm not saying go on a crash diet in the summer and come back looking like Peter Crouch after a hunger strike, only to be then as weak as a weight-drained boxer. What I am saying is that with all the best medical science available to the club these days, surely we can find a plan that lets him drop some muscle, become more flexible, but keep most of his power.
HELP A BROTHER OUT
Of course, it's not all down to Gyokeres. Any centre forward worth his salt needs a supporting cast. Even Thierry Henry got by with a little help from his friends.
We criticised VK for his lack of duel-winning. We will be fair and highlight what he is very good at: his movement running in behind defences.
I am sure we highlighted these stats in a previous piece, but when it came to making runs in behind defences, he was top of the Portuguese league in 24/25 by some distance, with 85 such runs in 33 games, averaging 2.7 per 90. The closest in Portugal for comparison purposes was 41, less than half. In the Premier League last season, the highest, as far as the stats I can find, was Nicolas Jackson with 61.
There is one major problem if the whole "running in behind" is your main strength. It gets nullified by a filthy low block. It's like playing a striker with blistering pace. That's all well and good, but where's he running into? There is no space to exploit behind a low block setup. The fact that we face one pretty much weekly isn't the team's fault, or Arteta's fault, or Gyokeres fault.
I will counter this by saying it didn't seem to be a problem for Sporting, who faced the same situation as us. They seemed to find a way, but again, the level of competition was way poorer.
Is it Arteta's system that neuters him? Let's face it, we haven't really had a striker tear it up since his appointment. Or have we signed a guy entirely unsuited for our system of playing? Unsuited to our league? It's like we finally signed our 'fox in the box' after all these years and are starving it.
We can all agree that we like to overload in the wide areas and build up play on the wings. I've said many times that Saka is always our main outlet progressing the ball up the park. We don't tend to play through teams centrally, so VK cuts an isolated figure at times.
Furthermore, we don't get the ball forward early, nor are we chaos merchants who flood the box with bodies and spam crosses. We circulate possession frequently and rely on cutbacks. We don't attack centrally looking for slip balls behind defences. None of which suits Gyokeres' game. Add a low block into the mix, and you can see why he struggles.
I said before that if Gyokeres played under Wenger and had Bergkamp feeding him, he'd be a 25/30 goal man. It's not like he misses chance after chance. The chances just aren't there, and that's not all down to him. I don't think I've seen Odegaard or Eze play one through ball behind a defence for him to run onto. The only ones I've seen do it are Dowman at Port Vale and Trossard.
I feel that, when he's wearing an Arsenal shirt, he's fighting our structure rather than enhancing it. It's like we signed an elite assassin but told him not to kill anyone.
Some boffin crunched the numbers pre-season with strikers previously moving from Portugal to England and came up with Viktor totalling 15 goals for the season across all competitions. When I first saw that, I was disappointed. 15 goals for £65m didn't seem like a great return on our investment.
That number isn't even looking likely now as he sits on what, 6, at nearly the halfway stage? Let's not forget that Gabi J is back in the mix and Havertz (hopefully), not far off, so his game time will also reduce. At this point, I'd take 15. Would you?
Hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed doing it. Made a welcome change from previews and reviews.
We'll be back to that on Friday with the Everton review. It looks like they are going to be missing a few bodies. Yay for us.
See you then Legion.