William Gallas has advised Mikel Arteta to exchange two Arsenal players this summer and believes recent additions could help get one of the best out of Viktor Gyokeres.
Gyokeres has endured a mixed first season on the Emirates Stadium following last summer’s £64m move from Sporting, scoring 17 goals but receiving criticism for his general play.
A lot of pundits have questioned if Gyokeres is nice enough to guide the road for title-chasing Arsenal, with Jamie Carragher recently claiming Arsenal needed to sign an upgrade in the summertime.
Gallas believes Gyokeres is usually a success at his former club but provided that Arsenal ‘change their style’ and begin providing him with higher and more regular service.
Arteta has Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke at his disposal on the fitting wing but Gallas fears each Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard on the left are stagnating.
Gallas is surprised by Martinelli’s subdued season – the Brazilian has scored only once within the Premier League – and has described Trossard as a ‘squad player’.
‘Who would I sign for Arsenal? To be honest, I believe they’ve got a superb squad and so they can do the identical performance for next season,’ Gallas told BoyleSports.
Get your football fix
Metro‘s weekly newsletter In The Mixer delivers punchy evaluation and breakdowns of the most important football stories on to your inbox.
Enroll here, it’s an open goal.
‘Even up front they’ve got the wingers however the only thing is perhaps they still need one world class striker or to vary the type of the team.
‘When Arsenal play on the counter-attack, I believe sometimes the midfielders need to search for Viktor Gyokeres to present him the ball at the primary opportunity.
‘Gyokeres at all times asks for the ball in front, within the space, but he doesn’t get the ball, since the midfielder wants to maintain the ball. That’s the type of Arsenal.
‘Gyokeres has scored goals but he hasn’t scored enough goals so he has to achieve a minimum 20 goals next season and it should be difficult for him if Arsenal are going to play the identical way because he doesn’t really dominate the league physically like he did in Portugal.
‘Perhaps you would like a left winger because I don’t know what has happened to Gabriel Martinelli, he’s just not what he was, and Leandro Trossard is a superb squad player but you would like something else.
‘Would I prefer Khvicha Kvaratskhelia or Bradley Barcola for Arsenal? Barcola.
‘If you’ve got a striker like Gyokeres, you would like players to present him the ball to attain the goals, and that’s why perhaps a few of Arsenal’s style has to vary, or Arsenal need to vary their striker.’
Gyokeres did not boost his goals tally in Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City before the international break.
The Sweden international was on track of their FA Cup quarter-final against Southampton on Saturday but couldn’t prevent Arsenal from slipping to a shock 2-1 defeat.
Arsenal face Gyokeres’ former club Sporting in the primary leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday night.
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the most recent news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
MORE: Arsenal handed major injury boost ahead of Sporting clash
MORE: Ray Parlour tells Mikel Arteta to do away with Arsenal’s ‘deadwood’ after shock FA Cup defeat
MORE: Gary Lineker defends Chelsea star and disagrees with ‘odd’ Liam Rosenior decision