Here's Why Arsenal Haven't Seen The Best Of Viktor Gyökeres | w/ Ollie Hopkins
Viktor Gyökeres hasn't been at his best since joining Arsenal last season - but why is it? With his unbelievable goalscoring record in Portugal with Sporting CP, Arsenal believed they'd signed the next big star - but it hasn't turned out that way. In this video, we break down Viktor Gyökeres's playing style, strengths, weaknesses and tactical role, looking at why the 28-year-old has struggled in the Premier League and whether it's solely down to him or could it be Mikel Arteta's style of play? Check out the Opta Analyst website: https://theanalyst.com/ 📬 Sign up for the Opta Analyst Newsletter here for free: https://theanalyst.com/sign-up Follow Opta Analyst: Twitter: https://x.com/OptaAnalyst Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoptaanalyst Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/optaanalyst/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@optaanalyst QUESTION - Have a question about a player or data? Drop it in the comments! viktorgyokeres arsenal arsenalfc premierleague
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The signing of Victor Yockarez has divided opinion at Arsenal. Have we seen the best of him or is there more still to come? We're joined by opter analyst Ollie Hopkins to take a look back at his time at the club so far. Ollie Yarez came with a lot of expectation, but 21 goals in his first season, that's not bad, right? >> I think yes and no. There's definitely nuance to this question um and and the answer to to it. Um, look, people have been saying for years the last thing Arsenal needed to finally win a title was signing a a 20 plus goal striker, right? They go out, they do that, they sign Yokarez from Sporting CP, he comes in, scored 21 goals or competitions and they win the league. So, in some respects, in a very simple basic level, job done. You know, they they they've done what everyone's been telling him to do. Um and you know he has played a role in them winning their first title of 22 years. So you know in that respect he's been effective um and I think it's important to put his goal tally into a bit of context. Um so so he is he's the first player to score 20 or more goals in all comps in his first season at Arsenal since Alexis Sanchez um in 20145. The only other player to do it in the Premier League era was Henry um back in 1999 2000. So three people in the Premier League era have scored 20 or more goals in their first season at Arsenal and he's one of them. So people don't come in and score a bunch of goals for Arsenal in in their first year. It's hard to do historically speaking. Um and and so it's important to to say that. Um now I suppose fast forward to to to this year and he's clearly second choice behind Kai Havvertz. Um he started two of Arsenal's seven games. Both were in cup competitions. He's obviously not scored a goal and he's had one shot in 190 minutes of action. So he has not been very productive um so far this season and he's clearly second choice in the teching order. Um and so I think when you're looking at a marquee signing as you say um he cost the club 55 billion pounds and he's you know not the first choice and probably doesn't look like he's going to be the long-term option then suddenly that does raise him to kind of question whether he's been a kind of will be a long-term effective u signing. Um so yeah, kind of like an effective goal return um in his first year in all comps, got 14 in the league. Um but long-term he's probably not had the impact or will have the impact that Artessa and Arsenal would really have wanted when they signed him. >> I think he came with a disadvantage really. Obviously that insane goal scoring record in Portugal, but it wasn't always going to be that easy to replicate in the Premier League. >> Yeah, it's a great great point. I mean his his record was insane. He scored 97 goals in just 102 games at Sporting. Like those numbers are are phenomenal. But you've got to take into account the league quality. So at OPA we have u league power rankings which kind of ranks every league in the world in kind of one big global table. The premier Liga so where Port where he was playing in Portugal is ninth currently in our league ranking. Um that's behind uh even the championship in England. So, it's it's still a top 10 league in the world, but it is ninth. The Premier League is is first, so there's definite quality gap there. Um, and you know, it's it's it's a well and good scoring those goals against slightly less opposition, but in the Premier League, he's playing against just harder and better teams each and every week. Um, and and there was never going to be a chance that he would kind of like just take his exact data and his exact form from Portugal and bring it into to England. What's really interesting is like his style of play and where he's most effective is in space running in behind or carrying the ball forwards into space and simply put he hasn't got that space and time in the Premier League. So if we look at um low blocks and the kind of amount of time Arsenal and Sporting kind of play against teams who are in a low block. It's it's quite interesting um comparison. So last year at Arsenal, Arsenal faced a team playing in a low block 24% of the time which was the second highest rate in the league by Liverpool who had 25%. Whereas at Sporting that figure was 19%. And so he has got less space in behind to to run into to make those kind of dangerous runs into space. And that was really what he was great at um at at sporting like he um made runs in behind all the time. He carried the ball so well in his last year at sporting alone. He had carries, so running with a ball five or more meters that ended it in a shot 50 times and scored nine goals from those carries, which were were both miles clear of any other player. And those carries per game basically created they they they they dropped in half um in his first year at at Arsenal because defenders just did not give him the space to to burst into. Um and you know that's because Arsenal are a dominant team. People are kind of wary of them. They they sit back. Um, but his strengths I think have not been optimized as a result. Um, there's just like a a lack of space in behind. Um, and almost like just around him physically for him to operate where he's where he's best. Um, I think one interesting thing to to look at is like simply something as simple as like his touches under pressure at Sporting. 68% of his touches were made under pressure. I.e. there's people around him trying to win the ball back off him. that number jumped to 90% at Arsenal last season. So, it's a it's a far more demanding environment where he has to um yeah make kind of technical play under pressure being constantly harassed, bumped, bruised by by defenders who are just physically more his his equal. Um and I think when he's less of a technical player like someone like Hverz is, he I think struggles a bit a bit more in that in that environment. >> Do you think that's maybe where he divides opinion? Obviously signing a player for for a decent amount of money, you think you play to his strengths, but obviously Arteta wants to play a certain type of way. >> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I I think he's almost I think what has become clear, I think, is that Arteta probably wanted Ses rather than Yakarez in in the summer. Um and and and Bura sort of convincing that Yakarez was was the guy to go for. What's clear is is that Arsenal want to essentially camp on the opposition's box um and make a lot of kind of combinations between you know sacker over to guard the striker even them then white on the on their right hand side and so they they play you know very very advanced around the opposition's box a lot of short intricate passes um and that just isn't Yokarez's strength um as I mentioned he's he's he is much more better with space to run into. Uh and so I think that the way Arsenal want to play and almost the way that they're almost forced to play by the way teams play against them just cers more for someone like Havz who is more technical is better better dropping deep and linking with with his his teammates and also is is probably better off the ball as well defensively. Um that doesn't really play into Yokoz's strength. Does raise the question sort of why did they sign him if that was the case. Um but I I I I do think some of the the public opinion around oh just get someone who will score us goals probably did filter through a little bit to um in the kind of coaching staff's thoughts um and that's probably why they they they felt look we have to do it now um and and get somebody in 55 million it's not a massive amount of money in modern day terms um so it might not be this massive miss that that people are kind of making it out to to be um and as I said, you know, he played a lot during Arsenal's title winning campaign. We we didn't have Havs for for a lot of the season and so almost without him, you know, there wouldn't have really been a a focal point and and a player to kind of come in and and score the goals. So, um I don't think he necessarily gets yeah, the the credit that he deserves for for just doing that and having that functionality in the team. It's no secret that Arsenal have played better with Havz and it's clear that Arteta prefers him. But what are the stats saying with and without Yarez? Cuz it's it's not that much different, is it? >> Yeah, it's funny. It's it's I was looking at this and um as of right now, Arsal actually win more games with Yakare starting than without him starting. It's it's very very marginal, but kind of since he joined the club in all competitions, they've won 31 out of 42 games where he started, which is 73.8%. and they've won 20 the 28 where he's not started which is 71.4. So you're talking two or three percentage points. It's not a a big number and that will probably change as um you know Habitats keep starting and Arsenal keep winning games this season. They started off pretty pretty well. Um but yeah it's quite funny that currently speaking anyway they actually arguably in the results space of things uh a bit more effective with with him playing than than not. But um I think what what is very clear from the start of this season is that he's definitely not first choice anymore. Habits is is the guy. Habits have started very very well as well and looked really like really sharp and really lively. So, um I expect those numbers to kind of flip um over the next month or