Cody Gakpo Reflects On Improved Liverpool Form Under Arne Slot
11/12/2024 08:51 AM
The Dutch forward believes a return to the left has benefitted his game this season.
With Liverpool flying high and top of the Premier League and Champions League tables, every story surrounding the club at the moment seems to be about positivity, progress, and praise for new head coach Arne Slot's approach.
One player who hasn't been shy about Slot's arrival benefitting him is winger Cody Gakpo, who often played through the middle under Jürgen Klopp but has run out exclusively at his favoured left wing position since Slot signed on.
"Before I came to Liverpool I played as a left winger, then I came here and I started to play more as a central striker," Gakpo said in conversation with Men in Blazers earlier in the week. "At the Euros, I played as a left winger again.
"Then the new manager came in and he said, the left wing position is your position whether you come on or start. There's a lot of competition, but he said that is your position. It felt a little bit like what I did at PSV. I feel good in this position."
Part of the reason Klopp often played Gakpo in the middle was that with Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, and Darwin Nuñez all options on the left—and all, to be fair, looking more effective than Gakpo there last season—minutes were limited.
That situation hasn't entirely changed this season, with Diaz arguably the club's in form attacker, but Gakpo has still had his share of minutes—of late in part due to Slot's decision to deploy Diaz as in a more central role situationally.
Gakpo's minutes instead so far appear to have largely come at Nuñez expense in a tactically reshuffled front line. Regardless the details of how it's shaken out, though, Gakpo's return to the left has helped the forward rediscover top form.
"I try to show what I'm capable of," he added. "I think I get more one vs. ones now, facing the opponent so I can go inside and cross or shoot, which is more my game and where I think I can be dangerous and help the team most."
