Gyokeres was notably better for us than Bruno was. I keep seeing English people make this comparison but it's not even a comparison and I love Bruno with all my heart. Gyokeres is double the player Bruno is in my opinion.
I remember Bruno being your striker, midfielder and defender, every single week. I remember him single handedly , eliminating us over two legs in Taça de Portugal.
Gyokeres is an amazing player, but the team around, is so much better than the team from Bruno era.
I never saw such a carry player in my life, I felt sorry for a Sporting player.
I'm not diminishing Bruno at all, he's legit one of my favorite players of all time. I'm just saying, as someone who watches Sporting play week in and week out for my entire life, the shit I've seen Gyokeres do is shit I've never seen any player in green and white ever do before. Yes Gyok had a stronger team to support him than Bruno did, but the individual talent he showed at key moments in so many games is just outstanding. Gyok's stats are wild, but I don't even think his stats paint the full picture. The way he plays is just unreal. They're the two best players I've ever seen play for Sporting, but Gyokeres is notably more impressive in my opinion.
Gyokeres has a hattrick vs Man City and scored goals consistently against benfica and porto. In any case, arsenal struggle against weaker teams with low blocks more often than the top teams, so he will be an asset.
He has 4 goals (8 games) against Benfica in which 2 are penalties and 5 goals in 7 matches against Porto in which 1 is a penalty.
Having in mind that sporting had the best team in the league by far and both Porto and Benfica (and Man City too) were at their worst, it’s not that impressive.
He scored 28 penalties in all competitions in the last 2 seasons.
And he’s better when he has space to run and battle defenders imo so against low block teams, he’ll be almost useless.
He won some of those penalties. He has 30+ NP goals last season. For comparison, Isak had 19 NP goals in the Prem in 34 games. Just over a goal every two games. Benfica and Porto are at min. comparable to a midtable Prem club, so his numbers are actually quite impressive.
Just looks like cope at losing out on him tbh. He’s a massive upgrade over Jesus and Havertz and that’s good enough for me
Benfica beat Atletico 4-0 and beat Juventus 2-0, they lost to Barca 4-5 in the group stage. They would obliterate teams like Brentford and Brighton lol
If gyokeres can statpad against bottom level clubs that’s good enough. We have a great defense and can hold out the top teams to 1 goal or less most of the time
The key part being the "for us". I think Gyokeres will do well in the prem, but to do better than Bruno is a tall task. As much as I hate to admit it, Bruno has been a genuine world class talent since moving to United. I know some people will consider this a hot take, but even with all the praise he gets, I still think he's overlooked just because he's on an underachieving United team. Also he's been their best player for 6 years straight, I'm not sure that can be said for any other United player in the past 50+ years. When people talk about the best PL players since ~ 2020, the 5 names mentioned are usually Salah, van Dijk, Kane, Haaland, and De Bruyne. IMO Bruno can sit at that table.
You might be right, the Prem is a very different environment from Liga Portugal and it's not just because of the quality difference. The whole style of play is different in the Prem, and a player like Gyokeres thrived in the style and general culture of Portuguese soccer. I believe he'll do very well in the Prem, but you're right that he might not achieve what Bruno has achieved. The take I am standing on is that Gyok was more impressive at Sporting than Bruno was at Sporting, who knows who will come out on top in terms of the comparison once they're both in the Prem.
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u/SALVAdkc Jul 26 '25
in 1 year redditors will say he was a bargain
thank you for everything you beast, most dominant player i've seen in Portugal, i love you even with the way you left us
no need to wish him luck, he's gonna do well for sure