Rio Ferdinand says Viktor Gyokeres lacks ‘understanding’ with Arsenal team-mate

Rio Ferdinand says Viktor Gyokeres may need to work on his ‘understanding’ with Bukayo Saka if he is to end his barren spell in front of goal for Arsenal.

Arsenal saw off strong competition from Manchester United to sign Gyokeres in the summer transfer window, with Sporting shaking hands on a £64million deal for the forward.

Gyokeres had enjoyed two extraordinary years in Portuguese football after joining Sporting from Coventry City, scoring 54 goals in his second season to help the club win a domestic double.

But after finding the net three times in his first four Premier League games, Gyokeres has failed to replicate that same level of consistency leading the line for the Gunners – managing just one goal in his last ten top-flight appearances.

A hamstring injury kept Gyokeres sidelined for four matches in November and the Sweden international has looked a little short of fitness in his last two starts, with Mikel Arteta opting to replace him against both Club Brugge and Wolves.

Gabriel Jesus’ impressive return – following a long-term knee injury – has only intensified the spotlight on Gyokeres’ struggles in front of goal of late, with some sections of the fanbase calling for the Brazilian to be given the nod at Everton next weekend.

Ferdinand made no secret of his doubts surrounding Gyokeres before Arsenal got their man in the summer, questioning the attacker’s abilities when he is ‘physically matched’ by opposition defenders.

Discussing Gyokeres again in the aftermath of Arsenal’s nervy win over Wolves, the legendary ex-Manchester United centre-back went into further detail about why he is yet to be fully convinced.

‘There are two or three things I look at with Gyokeres that he needs to understand,’ Ferdinand said on his Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channel.

‘His movement… I think they had 30 crosses in, the second-most they’ve had, and I’m watching him when the ball is wide.

‘I’m not saying he’s got terrible movement. I’m just saying you need to understand who is on the ball. [Depending on] who is on the ball, you move differently.

‘If [Martin] Odegaard’s on the ball, he’s going to move differently to when Saka’s on the ball and vice versa, but I just don’t think there’s that telepathy yet.

‘There’s not that understanding there, that I’ve got to move here when Saka’s there. Whether that’s about communicating and talking outside the pitch or just doing those reps on the training ground…’

According to Ferdinand, Gyokeres was able to bully opposition defenders when he was playing for Sporting – something he can no longer do on a consistent basis in the Premier League.

‘One of the big things that I saw, as a defender, he’s allowing defenders to get their hands on him,’ Ferdinand added.

‘Now, in Portugal, he was stronger and quicker than almost every centre-half. Even if the defender had his hands against him, he was shrugging people off and just slapping it in the back of the net.

‘He ain’t doing that in the Premier League. Centre-halves are as big as him and as strong as him at times and he’s enabling them to get their hands on him and then he can’t move, he’s locked down.’

The former England defender continued: ‘To set himself free from those players, play on their shoulders where they can’t see him and just make little movements where they’re uneasy, where they can’t get to him.

‘The moment they get to him it’s like he loses in that situation.’

Before Arsenal’s defeat of Wolves, Arteta underlined that Gyokeres was still adjusting to life in the Premier League and called on the Swede’s critics to ‘leave him alone’.

‘There was a lot of excitement because we were bringing a proven scorer that had probably the best stats in Europe,’ the Arsenal head coach told reporters.

‘He is a player that comes to a different league, the most demanding league in the world, and what happens if he doesn’t score for five or six games?

‘That was my only question to him: “How are you going to react if you don’t score in five or six games? Can you cope with that? And then what’s going to happen in the next 100 games?”

‘And that’s what you have to see. The sample is very small. So, leave him alone, let him do what he does best, be behind him and I’m sure things will turn out in the right way.’

The Spaniard was also keen to stress that Gyokeres’ recent lack of goals was not for the want of trying.

‘We have to put him in the best possible condition to explode and fulfil his potential,’ he added.

‘Before the injury, he was in a great place. It took him a while at the beginning because it’s a different league with different demands.

‘He had no pre-season and now he’s starting to get some momentum, but the thing that’s going to unlock him is goals.

‘He needs that for himself, for his confidence, and we’re going to judge his performances based on that as well. That’s logical, but he wants it so badly as well.’

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