I agree. I was quite worried about their potential interest for a long time. I think he would fit them brilliantly. The way they are scoring the goals, the way they attack the box etc, he’s probably a better fit for them than us really.
But seems they are still under the influence of Darwin’s failure, idk.
True. They did get Diaz from that same league though and he’s done well there.
That would probably mean something like this:
-----------Zubimendi----------Rice----------------
—Saka-----------------------------Odegaard(?)—
-------------Gyokeres------Havertz----------------
I don’t like that from a creativity standpoint.
Makes us a bit narrow as well and easy to shut out.
They’re definitely trying to shift him but Napoli didn’t want to pay Liverpool’s asking price (thankful for it too as I think he’s too wasteful).
-------------Zubimendi----------Rice----------------
—Saka------------Odegaard—---------------Eze----
---------------------Gyokeres----------------------
Eze on the left will give Saka more space so opposition defences won’t double up on him.
Havertz is fine for rotation but shouldn’t be starting upfront for a top European club.
All this said, I’m still super intrigued by what kind and what level of impact will Gyokeres actually have in the end.
All my positivity and optimism about him aside, I’m still far from certain he’ll be an absolute success here. He has done as good as he can in a competition of that level, but you can only wonder how much of all of that can he translate and carry over the famous Premier League??
Atm this feels like unwrapping a gift. 
He could be a Vardy level striker (atm I won’t try to imagine him going lower than that, but you can’t exclude it), I’d be more than fine with that. …a Diego Costa level striker…
But we could also have a peak Torres vol. 2, or a Lewandowski with pace on our hands 
I’m not excluding that either.
There’s that huge factor of unknown about him, an exciting one, not a worrying one for me personally… and I can’t remember when was the last time we had something like that with our major signing, in any position.
Wasn’t thinking of that specifically but that could be a variation I guess. Personally, I think in cases where we use two strikers, having both Zubi and Rice isn’t necessary so you sacrifice one.
We’re talking about games or specific game states where we’ll see a lot of possession and the opposing team is practically parking the bus.
It’s too late. Contracts signed with player and club. The only way this deal won’t go through is if our doctors and physios find something serious during the fitness exam.
Gyokeres is about the best signing Arteta has made and certainly the best attacking player, although the list of forward players he’s bought is very short. 
The reason Gyokeres is different is his winning mentality as well as wanting us over several other clubs so pushed for the move and we actually have a proper striker to compete with Haaland.
Think we’ll start pretty much with a 433 most games.
Rice Zubi Ode
Saka Gyok Eze
Could very much bring in Havertz and go 4213 when we need a goal
Rice/Zubi Ode
Havertz
Saka Gyok Eze
And start Havertz up top whenever Gyok needs a breather. Having both Havertz and Gyok does make us very flexible.
For the hype that comes with him I’d be very disappointed if he didn’t manage at least 18-20 non penalty goals in the league for us.
@Pires You need to back your boy by making a bet.
If he doesn’t score at least 20 league goals you’re donating £50 to OA.
The numbers can be very tricky.
Haaland, arguably the best scorer in the game nowadays scored 19 non pen goals in the league last season. 20 the season before that.
So you are expecting him to do AT LEAST as good as Haaland.
I don’t think the hype around him is THAT big. We just want a proper goalscorer since we didn’t have one since Auba, but very few are expecting him to match Haaland just like that.
Mbappe won the European golden boot last season with 24 non pen goals btw.
While we’re at the numbers, I expect at least 15-16 non pen league goals, with decent contribution in allroud play, assists etc. If he’s a bum in that regard I expect more goals.
22 goals in 31 games in his last season (including penalties). That doesn’t seem to much of a ask? Equaling the goal ratio in his first two seasons seem reasonable, indeed.
Yeah, it’s not a big task if all goes the right way, but it won’t be the end of the world either if he’s just a bit below that (depending on the allround context again).
I’m hopefull he’ll go over 20 league goals if all clicks the right way. The way we play (behind/around Gyokeres) obviously plays a big role too, and we did have big issues last year in our creation/proggression etc. His numbers aren’t ONLY up to him (as it’s with Haaland, he dropped the same way City dropped).
Hopefully most of those injury issues in the first place are behind us, and Ode should fix his form too. While getting that LW will play a big role too.
I was repating many times, the striker alone isn’t the answer to all our attacking issues.
I think part of the reason we pivoted to him (Sesko shenanigans aside) is that he’s also the finished article. At 27 years old, he’s not going to improve that drastically and I think it’s fair to expect him to be hitting circa 20 non-pen league goals.
Indeed, but a striker presence should free up the pitch for Odegaard/Saka to create more. In that sense his signing should make a difference too.
But a lot depends on that left wing signing. I’m not really stoked with Rice as left midfielder to be honest.