Piece of piss, group stage done

[Rich]

I suspect you are right. But as someone who didn't want him in the first place I am going to give him longer to prove me wrong.

As you know; I also saw that he was clearly a poor fit and nothing has changed my mind. Hope I'm wrong but unless he starts to do things he's never done in his career; I'm not sure how that will work.

Alvarez in the summer would be glorious.

[PSRB]

Gyokeres is fully fit now. Jesus has been out for a year and looked significantly better. I'm willing to nail my colours to the mast and say Gyokeres will never suit us / score any volume of goals for us.

Thankfully his wages aren't huge and he wasn't too expensive. Sold in the summer imho.

It would of course help if certain midfield players actually watched his runs. I feel sorry for him, his movement last night was excellent but no one actually ever seems to see his runs. Our horseshoe play seems too ingrained to change.

[Peter]

It would of course help if certain midfield players actually watched his runs. I feel sorry for him, his movement last night was excellent but no one actually ever seems to see his runs. Our horseshoe play seems too ingrained to change.

I think that is the key point. Rich above says he feared that he wouldn't be a good fit for us. And he isnt.

But we all assumed that was precisely why we wanted him, that we hoped that he and Eze (who also isn't a good fit) would be a big part of changing the way we play and would add new dimensions to our creativity.

As you say, we aren't seeing this. We are basically playing the same way and expecting them to adjust.

Last night was a good example. Even when we get behind a team's press our first ball is always wide. We never look to play through the centre. I cant think of a single instance last night where we did.

Gyokeres is left with very little to do, and none of it plays to his strengths. I think that is another reason why he needs more time.

[redgunamo]

Gyokeres is fully fit now. Jesus has been out for a year and looked significantly better. I'm willing to nail my colours to the mast and say Gyokeres will never suit us / score any volume of goals for us.

Thankfully his wages aren't huge and he wasn't too expensive. Sold in the summer imho.

Gyokeres is still injured, R. One of his fingers is broken.

A real trooper, imo.

[redgunamo]

I think that is the key point. Rich above says he feared that he wouldn't be a good fit for us. And he isnt.

But we all assumed that was precisely why we wanted him, that we hoped that he and Eze (who also isn't a good fit) would be a big part of changing the way we play and would add new dimensions to our creativity.

As you say, we aren't seeing this. We are basically playing the same way and expecting them to adjust.

Last night was a good example. Even when we get behind a team's press our first ball is always wide. We never look to play through the centre. I cant think of a single instance last night where we did.

Gyokeres is left with very little to do, and none of it plays to his strengths. I think that is another reason why he needs more time.

We are certainly less predictable now

[Rich]

Gyokeres is still injured, R. One of his fingers is broken.

A real trooper, imo.

I reckon someone in Saudi will take him in the summer with a bit of luck.

[WES]

I reckon someone in Saudi will take him in the summer with a bit of luck.

Hmmm it was all of 6 weeks ago that Gyokeres had two of his best performances for us and scored 3 goals in 4 games. He has spent the majority of the intervening time injured.

But because he isn't lighting the place up in his first two games back we should sell him, 13 games into his career with Arsenal.

Some of you should have a word with yourselves. I find myself wondering what those people who criticise Gyokeres this early thought of Pires and Henry after their first 13 games with the club.

I'm betting not much. We've seen more than enough from Viktor to know that he deserves a lot more time. And teammates who know better how to use him.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

How good did Gabi Jesus look when he came on?! Oh my.

So refreshing to have him back and it looked like he's never been away. He should be able to play through the middle until Havertz is back (maybe after Everton).

Think we all need to be honest that Gyokeres' style is a really poor fit for Arsenal and it's not likely to work.

It was his first start coming back from injury. The 2-3 games before he got injured, he was looking exactly what we needed. He was making space for all our creative players cos he was double marked and knew how to draw them away. He was scoring goals. And he was starting to get involved in the build up, dropping deep and linking with B.

DB10, Titi and Kai all took half a season.

And I also think that Vik, Kai, Jeez and also MnM will give us different options against different teams and with different players and formations.

[Rich]

Hmmm it was all of 6 weeks ago that Gyokeres had two of his best performances for us and scored 3 goals in 4 games. He has spent the majority of the intervening time injured.

But because he isn't lighting the place up in his first two games back we should sell him, 13 games into his career with Arsenal.

Some of you should have a word with yourselves. I find myself wondering what those people who criticise Gyokeres this early thought of Pires and Henry after their first 13 games with the club.

I'm betting not much. We've seen more than enough from Viktor to know that he deserves a lot more time. And teammates who know better how to use him.

It's not that, Wes. Even in the purple patch you mention he was still showing the concerning traits that he had before joining Arsenal.

I've never seen such a big player be so weak on the ball. I can forgive the complete absence of technical ability if he was using his physical characterisics to his advantage but he's incapable.

He is quite fast but in the PL he's not as fast as the defenders he's up against. So when he does get space (which is what he needs but is very rarely afforded to Arsenal) he loses the ball. He ruins our buildup play by constantly losing the ball (or rather it sort of bounces off him at peculiar angles).

I don't think his teammates have any confidence in him at all (and they see him far more than we do) and I really cannot blame them.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Hmmm it was all of 6 weeks ago that Gyokeres had two of his best performances for us and scored 3 goals in 4 games. He has spent the majority of the intervening time injured.

But because he isn't lighting the place up in his first two games back we should sell him, 13 games into his career with Arsenal.

Some of you should have a word with yourselves. I find myself wondering what those people who criticise Gyokeres this early thought of Pires and Henry after their first 13 games with the club.

I'm betting not much. We've seen more than enough from Viktor to know that he deserves a lot more time. And teammates who know better how to use him.

Agreed. I remember a Gooner cover with a cartoon of Titi saying "Why does ze manager keep talking about banjos and the arse of a cow?"

Just watched the 3 goals again. For the first, two defenders are with Vik to Noni's left, for the 2nd two defenders are watching Vik leaving Noni free at the back post and for the 3rd, Vik takes one defender opening up space for Gabby.