Lineker tells struggling Arsenal man Gyokeres to be more like one Leeds player | OneFootball

Gary Lineker insists that Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres needs to take a leaf out of Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s book if he wants to score more goals.

The Gunners signed the Sweden international in the summer transfer market for around £63.5m from Portuguese giants Sporting CP.

Gyokeres scored 97 goals in 102 appearances for Sporting before the former Coventry City star got a move back to England with Arsenal – but he hasn’t been as prolific on his return.

The 27-year-old has contributed seven goals and no assists in 21 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal with four of those goals coming in two matches against Leeds and Atletico Madrid.

Gyokeres is struggling to have the impact hoped but Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is still very confident that the Swede will come good eventually.

Arteta said recently of Gyokeres’ struggles: “Everybody was so excited to bring him into the club. We did it. We brought a player with an incredible scoring record who had to adapt to the league. He had no pre-season.

“The first few weeks were difficult because physically he wasn’t in his best state and he’s a player that needs that, like any other player in this league, almost to perform at that level.

“I know we need to continue to tweak and understand him a little bit better in certain situations, and he needs to do the same. But that’s about time. We have full support for him.”

And Lineker reckons Gyokeres needs to be a bit more like Leeds striker Calvert-Lewin to score more goals with the England international gambling on crosses into the penalty area.

Lineker said on The Rest Is Football podcast: “I’ve watched him [Gyokeres] quite closely the last few weeks and I think he’s like most strikers, is one that waits to see where it’s going, the ball, waits until it’s crossed and then attacks the space.

“That’s what defenders do, as a striker you got to gamble on where you think the ball might go and you go just as they’re about to cross it. You steal a march on the defender that way and lots of the time the ball won’t go there, but I don’t see him doing that very often.

“Dominic Calvert Lewin did a perfect example of how to do that for the Leeds goal at Sunderland, perfect. He didn’t wait and to see where it was going to go. He went right, I pulled away and then he sprinted at the near post and hoped that the ball would be delivered there and it was.

“I don’t see that too often from Gyokeres at present, the players that score big numbers will do that. You know, [Erling] Haaland, [Harry] Kane, [Robert] Lewandowski, they know how to make those kind of moves into those spaces.

“Is it something you can learn? I’ve always thought yes, but because it’s actually common sense because it’s law of probability when you think about it.”