Victor Gökeres is a hot summer signing to fill Arsenal’s No. 9 hole, but the Swede has found goals difficult to come by and his struggles have been well-documented.
Victor Gokeres regularly struggles to find the internet (Image: Stuart MacFarlane/Getty Images)
Victor Gokeres “doesn’t have what it takes” to make Arsenal champions, while Dietmar Hamann insists he’s “not good enough” to lead the team.
The Swede was Mikel Arteta’s go-to man in the summer and was looking to sign a prolific No. 9 after several years without one. It has been cited as a chink in the Gunners’ armor, with them spending over £60m to sign Gjokeres from Sporting Lisbon.
The forward scored 97 goals in his two seasons in Portugal but has not been able to repeat that feat in the Premier League, despite Arsenal being top of the table. He has fended off a lot of criticism for being so goal-oriented and failing to adapt to the new league.
Gökeres has scored 10 goals in 29 appearances for the North Londoners, only five of which have come in the Premier League, but he has not scored a non-penalty goal in his last 11 league games.
And former Liverpool star Hamann has already come to the conclusion that he is not at Arsenal’s level. He told CasinoBeats: “I’ve always said that Arsenal need a centre-forward. Even if Victor Gokeres didn’t start at the weekend, I don’t feel he’s one of the top strikers in Europe at the moment. I think he’s a goalscorer, but I don’t think it’s enough to score goals against the best teams, because I don’t think he’ll be in a position to score.”
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“They put Gokeres in as a centre-forward, but I don’t think he’s good enough. I don’t know if it will be the deciding factor in the end, but it certainly hasn’t helped Arsenal at the moment. We’ve seen Gokeres at several clubs before Sporting, but we don’t know if he has the ability to play with the best defenders in Europe and the Premier League.”
The German wants to give his new signing time, but does not believe he can lead the Gunners to the top. “It’s a difficult game so sometimes we have to give the players a little bit of time,” he added. “But to be honest, I don’t know if he has what it takes to lead a team like Arsenal to a title.”
Mikel Arteta has stuck with Victor Goqueres even though the numbers remain a cause for concern (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Arteta continues to defend his players strongly, but ultimately he needs to see a return on investment. Despite his great qualities, Gabriel Jesus was signed by Manchester City in 2022 but was unable to achieve the numbers previously produced by the likes of Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah.
Despite Arsenal’s lack of a scorer, their trophy ambitions remain intact as they remain competitive on all four fronts, but Gokeres remains a talking point.
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