Arsenal star Viktor Gyokeres played the full 90 minutes as Sweden lost at home to Kosovo in a crucial World Cup qualifier on Tuesday night.
Gyokeres has divided opinion at the Emirates so far, but his performance on Tuesday certainly wasn’t divisive for Swedish fans and pundits.
The Swedes were beaten by a first-half strike from Fisnik Asllani, condemning them to a third straight defeat in their qualifying group.
The result leaves Jon Dahl Tomasson’s side six points adrift of second place Kosovo, with their chances of participating in next summer’s tournament now extremely slim.
Swedish media react to Viktor Gyokeres’ performance against Kosovo
Deployed in a front two with Liverpool’s Alexander Isak, Gyokeres and his strike partner weren’t able to produce anything of note against the side ranked 91st in the world.
Managing just two shots worth 0.09 expected goals combined, it was certainly a night to forget for the Arsenal man.
While Tomasson kept Gyokeres on the pitch for the entire duration of the game, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable for the tactician to hook the player at some point.
Unsurprisingly, Swedish media were not happy with the 26-year-old’s display, to put it lightly.
Svenska Fans gave Gyokeres a 1/5 in their player ratings, writing: “Is very inconsistent right now. Mixes and gives. Can’t really get past his defenders like he did before. The clip in the step is not there, and loses almost every ball he gets.”
Meanwhile, FotbollDirekt wrote bluntly: “Alarm if you’re alive – completely invisible for 180 minutes.”
Viktor Gyokeres’ statistics vs Kosovo
Gyokeres won a goal-scoring award this week, but the player who was regularly dispatching from all angles last season looks somewhat lost at the moment.
He was completely negated by Kosovo’s defence, and is now facing the brunt of frustrations from Swedish media, who are also advocating strongly for Tomasson’s exit.
| Viktor Gyokeres’s statistics vs Kosovo | |
| Minutes Played | 90 |
| Goals | 0 |
| Expected Goals | 0.09 |
| Shots | 2 |
| Accurate Passes | 15/18 (83%) |
| Chances Created | 0 |
| Expected Assists | 0.03 |
| Touches in Opposition Box | 8 |
At the very least, Gyokeres was a lot more involved in build-up than he has been at Arsenal, completing 83% of his 18 attempted passes.
That said, an on-watching Mikel Arteta would’ve been much more concerned by the striker’s inability to find himself in dangerous goal-scoring positions to take shots.
Alarm bells will certainly be ringing for the Spanish manager.
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