Hamann insists Arsenal should have signed ‘tailor-made’ £46m Liverpool flop over Gyokeres | OneFootball

Arsenal should have signed a “tailor-made” former Liverpool star over Viktor Gyokeres in the summer, according to Didi Hamann.

Gyokeres has scored just five goals in 21 Premier League games so far and has been heavily criticised for his lack of all-round contribution to the Gunners on top of his failure to hit the back of the net anywhere near as regularly as he did for Sporting.

And Hamann reckons Arsenal would have been better off signing Darwin Nunez, who left Liverpool for Al Hilal in the summer for £46m having not made the grade at Anfield.

The ex-Liverpool midfielder says Nunez – who has scored six goals in 15 Saudi Pro League games this season – would have been the ideal addition to Mikel Arteta’s side.

“I thought last season everybody was having a go at Darwin Nunez but I thought Nunez would have been tailor-made for Arsenal, a team that creates many chances,” Hamann told CasinoBeats.

“For all his faults, and for all his easy chances he missed, Nunez always occupied two or three defenders with his physicality and his pace.

“If he could finish, he’d probably be the best player in the world. But I think for Arsenal he would have been a much better fit than Gyokeres.”

Gyokeres was dropped last weekend and Hamann isn’t convinced he will be able to force his way back into the starting XI.

“I don’t think he’s one of the top strikers in Europe,” he added. “I think he’s a goal scorer but then again I don’t think a goal scorer against the best teams is enough because I don’t think he will get into positions where he can score.

“They brought Gyokeres in as the centre-forward but I don’t think he’s good enough. Whether that will be the deciding factor in the end I don’t know but at the moment, it certainly didn’t help Arsenal.

“We saw Gyokeres at a few clubs before Sporting and I’m just not sure whether he’s got the ability to play against the best defenders in Europe and in the Premier League.

“It takes something more to even get into positions where you can finish against players like this, and obviously you have to finish chances too. It’s a very physical game and sometimes it can wear you out.

“If you do get a chance after 70 or 75 minutes, maybe you lack that bit of energy and concentration and you miss it. In Portugal he didn’t have to do too much work going backwards and maybe that could have saved him. Not every challenge was a full-on challenge.

“Sometimes we have to give players a bit of time because it’s a difficult game but I’m not sure he’s got what it takes to lead the line for a club like Arsenal and take them to the title in all honesty.”