Former Manchester United star Paul Scholes has questioned Arsenal’s signing of striker Viktor Gyokeres this summer.
Arsenal will hope that Gyokeres, who bagged 97 goals in 102 appearances for Sporting, will spearhead the North London side to the title this season in what is their biggest signing of the summer so far in a £63.7M deal.
The Portuguese international was immediately handed the No.14 shirt, the same number worn by legendary player Thierry Henry. However, despite the obvious trust manager Mikel Arteta has already put in Gyokeres to live up to Henry and become a goal scoring machine, Scholes has questioned the signing.
Is Gyokeres the right choice?
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, the former United midfielder asked whether Gyokeres is really the type of player the Gunners need to lead their attack and if Arteta really wanted to sign him over other world class strikers this summer.
“I just wonder if you’ve chosen the right one. Because there was a lot of um-ing and ah-ing about it, I wondered if Mikel Arteta really wanted him, as the main one he wants? I’m not too sure, and he’s got him now.
“He’s had a really strange career path – Brighton, Coventry, and then he’s gone to Sporting Lisbon and his goal record is absolutely brilliant you can’t take that away from him. If there’s any team that he could go to and create chances, then it should be Arsenal and it should be a really good match.”
Will Gyokeres fit tactically?
Gyokeres won the golden boot In the Primeira Liga last year with 39 goals as he helped Sporting to yet another league title. However, despite his impressive stats, Scholes again questioned if he fits into Arteta’s tactics which will require him to maintain possession whereas at Sporting he was used to counter attacking football.
“The only thing I’d say against Gyokeres really is that with Sporting Lisbon, he’s probably playing on the counter-attack a lot, in Europe especially,” Scholes said.
“You think of Arsenal, they have the ball an awful lot, is he going to be clever enough to make these runs in behind – a lot of him that you see, he’s sprinting from the halfway line almost, you can’t keep up with him, he’s ramming people, he’s quick and he’s smashing the ball in.
“Is he going to be that clever striker – we know (Alexander) Isak can do that. Can Gyokeres do that?”
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