Who Is Viktor Gyökeres?
Negotiations between Coventry City and Sporting CP seemed to slow down this summer, but early performances suggest Viktor Gyökeres was worth the wait.
A Swedish international with 14 caps to his name, Gyökeres made a name for himself at the 2017 UEFA European U19 Championship.
Though Sweden finished last in the group, Gyökeres scored three of his nation’s four goals, making him the joint-highest scorer for the tournament.
That led to a transfer to the EPL with Brighton and Hove Albion.
He never made an official appearance for the club, culminating with a loan move to Coventry City that was made permanent in 2021.
The Swede came to life once the transfer to the EFL Championship side was complete.
He managed 17 goals in 2021/22 and added 21 more last season, along with 10 assists.
Those performances prompted Sporting CP to break the bank for the big #9.
The typically frugal club paid a record transfer fee of €20m (plus €4m in bonuses).
Sporting supporters have enjoyed his start, and even club legends are singing his praise.
Manuel Fernandes, the 2nd leading scorer in club history, believes 25 to 30 is well within Gyökeres’ reach and that the Swede is the best striker in Portugal.
There’s a lot of hype surrounding Gyökeres.
Based on his performances thus far, including preseason friendlies, Sporting CP fans are justified in their excitement.
This Viktor Gyökeres scout report offers a detailed tactical analysis of Gyökeres’ strengths and weaknesses and how he fits into Rúben Amorim’s tactics.
Viktor Gyökeres Style Of Play & Data Profile
Sporting CP thought they had their #9 when the club signed Paulinho from Braga in January 2021.
While the big striker has 22 goals in approximately two and a half seasons with the Leões, his five-goal performance in 2022/23 confirmed the inevitable; Sporting needed another #9.
Based on reports leading up to the transfer, Gyökeres only had eyes for Sporting, and the interest was mutual.
With two goals in the opener, the Swedish international is off to a great start.
To understand what drew Sporting’s attention, look no further than his chart from last season.
In 4,726 minutes with Coventry City, Gyökeres was among the best in the league in attacking metrics.
His goal contribution was excellent; he added a different dynamic on the dribble and has a “fox in the box” skill set.
Though he doesn’t offer much defensively, his work in the box and playmaking ability in the opposition’s half of the pitch were too much for Sporting to pass up.
He’s the #9 they’ve been looking for since the departure of Bas Dost.
Viktor Gyökeres Radar Chart At Coventry City
While his passing ability is a nice perk, this transfer centres squarely on adding a lethal finisher to a squad that provides high-quality opportunities.
This is where Gyökeres will thrive.
Given his innate perception of movements and positioning in the box, he’s well-equipped to give Sporting the goals they’ve been lacking in recent years.
He’s the kind of #9 who always manages to find the ball.
During a preseason friendly against La Liga’s Real Sociedad, the first defender deflected a cross from the right wing, taking a fortunate bounce over the near-post opponent.
Gyökeres was Johnny on the spot, continuing his run and finishing a fortuitous sequence with a well-struck volley.
At 187 cm and 190 pounds, Gyökeres is a significant presence in the box and a physically imposing player for opponents to contain.
Given his size, his prowess on the dribble may come as a surprise.
In the season opener against Vizela, Gyökeres got the home crowd on their feet with a brace inside the first 15 minutes of the match.
Both goals were well taken, but the second was especially impressive.
After a high recovery by the Verde e brancos, Gyökeres received a pass as the high outlet and decided to go it alone.
He initially picked up the ball in the central channel, dribbled towards his left and brought three defenders with him.
Just as the Vizela players thought they had closed him down and closed his angle to goal, Gyökeres whipped out a fantastic feint to split two defenders and get the ball back on his preferred right foot in the centre of the box.
Though his momentum carried him towards the touchline, he took his chance and buried the ball in the side netting, doubling Sporting’s lead.
Looking back at this time with Coventry City, most of his shots came from within the box, especially within the width of the six-yard box.
That said, he succeeded in finding the target from outside the box and wide of the six.
Preseason performances and the home opener show us that the new Sporting forward is a player with a fantastic finish and composure in front of goal.
Viktor Gyökeres Shots Map In Championship
But he’s more than just a goal-scorer.
He is a player who likes to make runs into the half-spaces.
When opponents over-commit when defending against him, he has shown excellent vision and passing range to pick out the key pass, much like this fantastic far post delivery to the feet of Daniel Bragança.
Make no mistake about it.
Sporting CP signed Gyökeres for his goals.
That said, he will add much more to Amorim’s side.
He’ll command attention in and around the box, freeing up space for his teammates and creating link-up opportunities with him in the box.
Though Gyökeres was held scoreless against Casa Pia in round two, the man he was brought to replace, Paulinho, bagged a brace.
The Swede’s influence will be felt far beyond his goals in Lisbon.
Viktor Gyökeres Link-up play
One of the qualities Gyökeres possesses is his ability to link up with teammates.
With his size, he’s a natural fit as a high target.
He also has the pace and willingness to stretch the opposition’s backline with runs in behind.
The versatility of his approach makes Gyökeres a problematic matchup for any opponent.
He has the strength to battle with centrebacks and the pace to test them if they dare play a high line.
Given the calibre of Ruben Amorim’s tactics, the degree of versatility will help keep points off balance and force them to take extra steps to contain the threat of Gyökeres.
Within Sporting’s 3-4-3 system, it’s typical for the #9 to operate as the highest player and for the left and right forwards to coordinate movements into support positions underneath.
While Sporting had some success using Paulinho in this role, the physicality of Gyökeres and his strength in holding up defenders leads one to think that Sporting will have more success playing as their highest attacker.
Analysis of early games would confirm that suspicion.
In fact, against Casa Pia, Paulinho played left forward intended to drift more centrally to connect with Gyökeres.
The Swede was the target, but the Portuguese moved into support positions to link up with his #9.
If there is a criticism of Gyökeres’ hold-up play, it is that he tends to be too upright and flat when playing with his back to goal and doesn’t use his arms and hands enough to fend off opponents.
Though he is an imposing figure and strong enough to hold off most centrebacks, he doesn’t work to increase the distance between the defender and the ball.
Further, since he tends to receive those passes with an upright body orientation, he allows defenders to make a successful late push as the ball arrives.
It’s a small detail, but this area certainly has room for improvement.
That should frighten opposing defenders.
Back to that point of commanding attention, early performances have seen opponents push extra numbers towards the big Swede.
The more attention he commands, the more time and space his teammates have to operate in.
These tactics directly benefited Pedro Gonçalves in the match against Real Sociedad.
With the Spanish backline closely tracking Gyökeres centrally, Pote made a run from a deep central position to get behind the backline.
The ball over the top was a little behind him, but Gyökeres quickly responded and received the headed pass from Sporting’s prolific attacker.
Pote has long carried the scoring burden for Sporting, so the presence of Gyökeres is a significant boost for the squad.
His integration into the team has gone well, and the link-up play between Gyökeres and his teammates shows that they’re quickly developing an understanding of each other’s approach to the game.
This group looks like it’s played together for years, which is a credit to Sporting’s scouting department, Amorim’s tactics, and Gyökeres’ football IQ.
Viktor Gyökeres Movements off the ball
Thus far, nearly all of the images in this analysis have shown Gyökeres in the central channel or featured a sequence that originated in the centre of the pitch.
The early indication is that he will be the central focal point in Sporting’s attack, which creates opportunities for the other two forwards in the half spaces and wings.
Though Gyökeres has done most of his work centrally, he likes to make runs into the half spaces and wings to get himself in a forward-facing position and either run at the backline or get behind it.
His acceleration is decent, and he has a good top-end pace, so he’s a player who will use well-timed runs to get behind opponents and then use his dribbling ability or strength to beat them in 1v1 duels.
Looking at Viktor Gyökeres’s heat map from the past two seasons, we do see a tendency to get into the half spaces and wings, especially on the left side of the pitch.
In doing so, he sets up his right foot to go to goal.
That high percentile rank in dribbles P90 will primarily come from his work in and around the box to create his shot.
Viktor Gyokeres Heat Map
The Casa Pia match provided an excellent example.
Starting in the central channel, Gyökeres saw his opportunity to run into the left half wing to latch onto a pass.
He beat the defender to the ball and tried to play a pass to Paulinho near the penalty spot.
The ball trickled through the box and onto the feet of Ricardo Esgaio.
The right-winger put the ball back into the box, setting up the opener from Paulinho on a nifty volley.
Casa Pia had issues containing those movements from Gyökeres, so he continued attacking them.
Even midway into the second half, he still found room to run on the left side of the pitch.
The sequence didn’t end with a goal, but the big #9 still managed to get Sporting into the box and take a shot.
Let’s talk about his movement in the box.
Positioning and movement in the box are vital qualities for someone with a “fox in the box” skill set.
One thing Gyökeres does exceptionally well is play off the back shoulder of defenders.
He stays outside their sight, giving himself opportunities for unopposed movements in the box.
His opener against Vizela was entirely due to his movement in the box and his ability to beat a defender with the dribble in tight spaces.
Initially, Gyökeres was well prepared to attack a near post delivery, but Nuno Santos‘s cross was short, only reaching the foot of the near post defender.
Taking advantage of his positioning, Gyökeres burst in front of the unsuspecting defender to claim the cross.
Look at the way he uses his strength in the sequence.
Not only did he beat his mark to the spot, but he out-muscled him throughout the duel.
Somehow, Gyökeres knocked the defender off his back and got into a forward-facing position.
A quick feint saw him gain half a step on his opponent.
As he prepared to have a go, Gyökeres cleverly sent his shot under the outstretched leg of his opponent and into the side netting at the far post.
That was an example of using his movement off the ball to create a goal-scoring opportunity for himself.
Let’s see how Gyökeres uses the quality of his movements to create for teammates.
Knowing that he’s the player opponents will look to nullify in the box, Gyökeres also uses his influence to create shooting opportunities for his teammates.
Returning to the preseason victory against Real Sociedad, the Swede initially took up his starting position at the far post but saw only one defender adequately defending the centre of the goal.
Gyökeres intelligently made a darting run to the near post.
While there was an opportunity to play him, his run accomplished nothing other than pulling his mark outside of the centre of the goal.
By the time Pote hits his volley, Gyökeres has cleared any traffic in front of the goal.
In fact, the lone defender standing between Pote and the goal is screening the goalkeeper.
A nice sequence in attack was rewarded with a beautiful finish.
Gyökeres picks his movements very well.
Whether attempting to create goal-scoring opportunities for himself or his teammates, his intelligent movement of the ball exploits space or creates it.
Sporting attackers tend to thrive when engaging in fluid positional rotations and coordinated movement patterns.
Gyökeres’ addition to the team is a massive boost for this dynamic group of forwards.
Conclusion
Sporting had to pay a club record transfer fee to sign Gyökeres, but this seems like money well spent.
He hasn’t been with Sporting long, but the understanding between the new signing and the returning teammates has been excellent through the preseason and early Liga matches.
Manuel Fernandes’ prediction of 25 to 30 goals is a lofty one.
Still, given Sporting’s shot-creation ability and an excellent tactical fit with Gyökeres, the Sporting legend’s analysis may very well come to fruition.
There are so many other aspects of his game that we could discuss in this scout report, but suffice it to say that Sporting has got quite the talent on their hands.
Based on early performances, Fernandes sounds every bit justified in his prediction.
Gyökeres is a massive talent and the missing piece Sporting has been looking for.
Watch out, Benfica and Porto; this Liga race promises to excite.
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