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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/Sparky-moon on 2026-01-11 10:39:08+00:00.
Poor movement Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the striker’s performances in recent months has been his inability to find space in the penalty area. A recurring theme of Arsenal’s matches has been crosses flashing across the box with Gyokeres nowhere near them.
On numerous occasions this season, Gyokeres has either been on his heels when the cross is delivered or simply too close to the opposition defenders to make any impact. Arsenal have a collection of exceptional wingers – Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard, especially, are superb crossers of the ball – but Gyokeres has been struggling to attack their deliveries from wide.
Former England striker Gary Lineker, who was known for his predatory penalty-box movement as a player, is among those who have been critical of Gyokeres’s approach to these situations.
“I’ve watched him quite closely the last few weeks and I think he’s like most strikers – he waits to see where the ball’s going, waits until it’s crossed and then attacks the space,” Lineker said on The Rest Is Football. “That’s what defenders do.
“As a striker you have to gamble on where you think the ball might go and you go just as they’re about to cross it. You steal a march on the defender that way and lots of the time the ball won’t go there, but I don’t see him doing that very often.”
In the last few games, there have been three striking examples of this lack of movement. The first was against Aston Villa, when Declan Rice produced a devilish low cross from the left flank. Gyokeres simply did not anticipate the delivery, and therefore could not reach it in time.
Could it be an issue with Arsenal’s wider attack, rather than with Gyokeres as an individual? The success of Mikel Merino, when filling in as a striker during Gyokeres’s absence earlier this season, would suggest not.
Merino, playing as a centre-forward, showed intelligent penalty-box movement to score from crosses in games against Slavia Prague, Chelsea and Brentford. Such moments currently seem to be beyond Gyokeres.
Unreliable touch Sadly for Gyokeres, his struggles are not limited to off-the-ball movements. In possession, too, he has had difficulties against the aggressive and powerful centre-backs in the Premier League.
So far this season, 33 strikers have played 500 minutes or more in the Premier League. Of those 33, Gyokeres ranks 33rd for possession loss rate, which means he loses the ball more times per touch than any other striker in the division. His possession loss rate is 42.7 per cent.
This looseness in possession almost cost Arsenal at home to Villa last month. Gyokeres was robbed of the ball in his own half, leading to a Villa counter-attack from which Ollie Watkins should have scored.
Gyokeres also ranks worryingly low for his duel success rate, which has been 33.6 per cent in the Premier League this season. Only three strikers in the league have a worse duel success rate.
It is clear that the quality of defenders in England is higher than in Portugal, where Gyokeres scored 97 goals in 102 matches for Sporting. Last season, he completed 60 of his 132 attempted dribbles past opponents (46 per cent). In the Premier League, he has been successful with only five of his 27 attempted dribbles past opponents (19 per cent).
There are some caveats here. First, the nature of Arsenal’s possession-based game means that Gyokeres is often playing against compact, deep-lying defences. He therefore has less space than most of his peers in the league. Secondly, Arsenal generally prefer to build play through midfield rather than quickly sending long balls towards Gyokeres. Again, this contributes to him often being surrounded by opponents.
A combination of the above factors means that Gyokeres is simply not as involved in Arsenal’s matches as he or they would like. Against Liverpool on Thursday, he had only eight touches. It was the seventh Premier League match this season in which he failed to register a shot.
Perhaps most concerning of all is that Gyokeres is becoming less involved, and less effective, over time. In his first five Premier League starts, he scored two goals from open play and averaged 20 touches per game. In his last five Premier League starts, he has scored zero goals from open play and averaged 15 touches per game.
Adaptation For all the criticism that Gyokeres is receiving on an individual level, it could be argued that his team-mates are not always helping him. There have been a few occasions this season when Gyokeres has wanted an adventurous early pass from midfield, but his team-mates have instead chosen a safer option.
Against Liverpool, for example, Martín Zubimendi declined a high-risk pass into the path of Gyokeres and instead played a shorter pass to Saka.
For Arsenal, it has too often been the case that Gyokeres has looked for one pass while his team-mates have played another. The sense persists – and is actually growing – that he is not yet on the same wavelength as the creative players in the side.
The counter-argument to all this is that Gyokeres is helping Arsenal’s attack by occupying the opposition centre-backs and pinning them back, thus creating more space for the other attackers.