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Home»News»What Liverpool can expect from Cody Gakpo: ‘He has always loved scoring or making assists’
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What Liverpool can expect from Cody Gakpo: ‘He has always loved scoring or making assists’

Lo Giang VuongBy Lo Giang VuongDecember 27, 2022No Comments17 Mins Read
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(A version of this article was originally published on October 20, 2022. It has been updated to reflect Cody Gakpo’s performances for the Netherlands at the World Cup and that Liverpool have reached an agreement to sign him.


Cody Gakpo was one of the stars of the World Cup in Qatar — in a Netherlands team that was clunky in front of goal, he shone. He already had suitors lining up but his three goals in five impressive displays only ramped up interest.

From being pursued by Leeds United and Southampton in the summer, he is set to move to Anfield, where he will complement an attack stacked with talent. Where he fits in will be Jurgen Klopp’s problem, a lovely one to have for any manager.

With Manchester United having a Cristiano Ronaldo-sized hole to fill and Dutchman Erik ten Hag in charge, there was an expectation Gakpo would move to Old Trafford — but Liverpool acted fast to jump to the front of the queue.

In Qatar, Gakpo became the first Dutch player to score in all three group stage matches at a World Cup. In achieving that, he became only the fourth Netherlands player to score in three consecutive World Cup games — joining elite company in Johan Neeskens, Dennis Bergkamp and Wesley Sneijder.

So what would the 23-year-old who came through the ranks at PSV Eindhoven bring to Liverpool?


Twan Scheepers’ reaction is one of surprise. “Why?” he asks.

And right there is the paternal instinct of a youth-team coach shining through.

Scheepers is no longer a youth-team coach and when he speaks to The Athletic from the Netherlands, he has just finished preparing for Utrecht’s next league match — the trip to PSV Eindhoven last weekend. He is assistant manager at Utrecht in the Dutch Eredivisie and the game will pit his club against the player in the Netherlands who is making the biggest waves: Gakpo.

For Scheepers’ sake, a quiet afternoon for Gakpo would be nice, no? Better than a Gakpo masterclass? Scheepers is perplexed.

“No, no,” he says. “I enjoy seeing Cody when he’s at his best. The players I worked with, I don’t want them to play badly. It’s not like that. We go to try and get a result, of course we want to. You could say we are the enemy on Sunday! But no, I can’t ever look for him to have a bad game.”

Gakpo is on a promise either way. At full-time, Scheepers will get his shirt.

“No one else, whatever the result,” Scheepers jokes. “I have a deal with him.”

Gakpo’s shirts are worth a bit these days and their value is increasing exponentially. European football at large has taken a shine to the winger and various clubs are thinking hard about him in advance of the transfer window opening again at New Year. He was hot property in August and he is hotter property now, expertly enhancing his profile while everyone is watching.

Manchester United had Gakpo on their list of possibilities during the summer and Leeds United and Southampton tried hard to make him theirs late on.

[RELATED: Onstein – Leeds’ Gakpo move in doubt]

In terms of maximising his value, Gakpo’s sense of timing was impeccable. On the night Leeds sent their director of football, Victor Orta, to Eindhoven to court him, he scored a hat-trick. An expensive deal became just too pricey.

He has 14 goals and 12 assists (when including the Dutch Super Cup) for PSV and the Netherlands this season, ahead of even Erling Haaland (who’s on 24 combined for Manchester City and Norway) for total goal contributions.

Already, in several recruitment departments, the chase is on.

Predictably, Gakpo did his thing against Utrecht, serving up an assist as he captained PSV to a 6-1 win. Tonight (Thursday), it is Arsenal at the Emirates in the group phase of the Europa League — a competition in which the 23-year-old is unlikely to spend much more of his career.

Gakpo and Scheepers go back many years, to a time when the former Derby County assistant was working in PSV’s academy and he was surging through it, coach and protege inspiring each other.

“From the start he was brilliant,” Scheepers says. “And he always wanted more.”


PSV’s youth teams are so good, so laden with talent, that competition for them in the younger age groups can be sparse.

Scheepers first crossed paths with Gakpo in the under-11s in 2007 and some of the matches the kid featured in were the equivalent of professionals against amateurs. The true tests came when the PSV youngsters encountered those from Ajax, Feyenoord or other clubs of that calibre.

Gakpo’s repertoire of skills was unforgiving. He could go close to or hit double figures in a single game quite easily and he could do it repeatedly.

“Yeah, he’d often score nine goals, something like that,” Scheepers says. “The score could be 16-3, 16-2, and he’d score a lot. But afterwards he never spoke about the goals or how many he’d got, or he didn’t speak about it as a good thing. (Instead, it was) If he scored nine, how could he score 12? How could he run better or how could his technical skills be better? Those were the conversations we had, every single time.

“He loves scoring or making assists. He always has. That’s like his living, you know? But after each game, there was one thing that bothered him, one thing he wanted to talk to me about improving. We had to work on it the next week, and the next. And then there would be something else. That’s Cody.”

🔴⚪️ @PSV‘s Cody Gakpo scored twice last time out…

⚽️1⃣ from range 💪#UEL pic.twitter.com/YyIdNgqpxZ

— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) October 13, 2022

Gakpo’s father is from Togo, a west African country between Ghana and Nigeria, and was a good footballer in his time. People used to tease a young Cody by telling him his dad was more talented than him. Nobody bothers pretending anymore.

His mother played rugby for the Netherlands and his brothers have tried their hands at careers in football too. The youngest, 17-year-old Duc, went into PSV’s academy for a trial earlier this year.

Scheepers credits the family, and Gakpo’s parents in particular, for taking football and its trappings as they came.

“His parents knew how to live as professionals, but in a healthy way,” he says. “They coached him in their own way so well, not giving him too much pressure or stress. They praised his skills and they wanted him to have fun, to enjoy the game. I can say that he’s still a guy who loves the game with no stress. It’s what made him the player he is, or that’s how it felt to me. No stress, just love.”

Gakpo, for a winger, is unusually tall at 6ft 2in (188cm) or thereabouts. He had big feet as a child and when his major growth spurt came, Scheepers remembers it taking hold quickly, almost forcing him to reset. There were injuries too, including a torn calf muscle and a broken ankle, and Gakpo was like most teenage boys — riding the emotion of physical and emotional changes which very few people can prepare you for.

“You know how it is — everyone has difficulties in puberty,” Scheepers says. “He grew up in a short time and so his agility as it used to be, it was gone. He had to renew his running and everything. Now you see he’s a really tall guy with so much technique — the complete player on the left, I think, but a complete player who can still get better. But back then, he had injuries and issues which bothered him.

“There was a time when he was angry about his own body because he couldn’t do what he’d be doing before. In that period, you just hope things go the right way for a player. But in the end, he had the determination. He had the fight. Something didn’t go as he liked but he came through it. He had a dream and it’s everything that counts for him.”

But what made him special? What did the eye of a coach fall on first?

“It’s the dribble,” Scheepers says. “The one-on-ones, passing the opponent at speed, getting the right timing in front of goal. As we say in Holland, he could always find the shortest way to goal. As a defender, you’d be concerned about playing him because in an instant he changes the game. Even in the 94th minute, he believes in always being in the right place, because something could happen.”

Scheepers, who broke through and played professionally for PSV in the late 1980s to early 1990s and coached in their academy for a decade from 2007, follows the mantra of managers the world over, saying his part in Gakpo’s development was “only a small part of what he is”.

“It’s the player,” he says. “It’s the player who does it. You can point them in the right directions tactically or technically but mentally, it’s them.

“He loved playing so much and that was inspiring for me, inspiring as a coach. He’s a stable guy with common sense. His whole mindset is to be the best player — whatever ‘the best player’ means for him in the end.”


Gakpo’s performances last season saw him voted the Eredivise’s player of the season by Dutch football magazine Voetbal International and he also tops their player ratings so far in this one. 

“This year he really made a big step in my opinion,” says Lentin Goodijk, one of its journalists. “He plays with a huge amount of confidence and finally also really steps up in the big games. Last year, being the captain sometimes looked like a burden, this season it just feels very right. Mentally he has become very strong, it’s impressive. Also, no more injuries.”

Now managed by summer-appointment former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Netherlands striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, PSV’s squad includes the attacking talents of Xavi Simons and Noni Madueke, the ball-winning, press-resistant stylings of defensive midfielder Ibrahim Sangare as well as two young defenders in academy graduates in Jordan Teze and Armando Obispo.

Gakpo is the shining light of a young side hoping to end Ajax’s four-season reign as champions (they were top when 2019-20 was scrapped due to the pandemic, with the title left vacant), and often begins games on the left wing in a 4-3-3 formation. 

Eredivisie Europa League

Games Played

10

3

Minutes Played

769

197

Goals

9

3

Expected Goals (xG)

5.27

0.99

Assists

7

1

Shots (inc. Blocks) Per 90

4.5

5.5

Shots on Target Per 90

2.6

2.7

Chances Created (inc. assists) per 90

4.5

2.7

Total Carries per 90

14.4

12.8

Touches per 90

61

55

Dribbles Completed per 90

1.9

2.3

Dribbles Success Rate

52%

56%

His performance in a 4-3 victory over Feyenoord a month ago saw him demonstrate a number of the skills that have delighted fans in the Netherlands and earned the attention of scouts further afield.

With the game 1-1 midway through the first half, Gakpo finished off a move typical of his recent form, first positioning himself inside Feyenoord right-back Marcus Pedersen during a PSV defensive phase.

Gakpo begins moving to goal as Feyenoord attempt to play through to attacking midfielder ›, only for Sangare to force a turnover and begin a counter-attack.

The ball is eventually played to Simons – who has spent this season as PSV’s secondary attacking threat in the enforced absence of Madueke, who is yet to return from a pre-season ankle injury.

Simons is enjoying a fruitful playing relationship with Gakpo, whose position when receiving this pass is more akin to a central striker/inside forward than that of a traditional winger.

Gakpo then takes the ball with his left foot, before whacking it into the far corner with his right. 

A Gakpo highlight reel/compilation tape may comprise largely of glitzy dribbles and long shots bending into the top corner but it is his ability to keep his head up in the final third and then make the correct decision at the right time that particularly stands out.

Gakpo would finish that Feyenoord game with three assists (two, including the late winner, from corners) to go with his goal and is building a reputation as a creator as well as a scorer.

Those looking for a comparison may find his current style is somewhere between the Jadon Sancho who dazzled at Borussia Dortmund and Marcus Rashford during his best spells for Manchester United.

His Eredivisie shot map for 2022-23 so far (below) shows a player who relishes attacking the left half-space. 

Gakpo said he watched clips of former Arsenal great Thierry Henry for inspiration.

He had told UK newspaper The Times: “He (Henry) was more of a striker, but he was also tall and he liked to play off the side like me, so I watched clips of him and tried to learn something from him: the way he comes in from the left and shoots with his right.

“I don’t know if it’s working, but I tried to copy him a bit.”

“At this moment, you could definitely say he is too good to play in the Eredivisie,” adds Voetbal International’s Goodijk. “He is so deadly when he gets the space against the teams that do not defend so well.”

A look at his shooting map in the Europa League — where he has so far faced Bodo/Glimt once and FC Zurich twice — illustrates how his game changes when playing against teams who want to defend deeper. He is still an effective ball-carrier fond of cutting inside and shooting, but his underlying numbers suggest he is in the midst of a finishing hot streak.

Gakpo’s speed may see him caught by defenders in the latter stages of the Europa League — if, a) PSV get that far, and b) he’s still their player when they do — but his height, strength and balance mean he can ride a tackle when dribbling and still get to the final third. 

“I think it would really benefit Gakpo to play against teams that defend deeper, to work on his decision-making in the tight spaces,” Goodijk says. 

Such is Gakpo’s current form, there are moments in PSV matches where he attempts over-ambitious moves that could be punished by stronger opposition.

If he was to make a move to a Premier League club, he may experience issues similar to Sancho after his return to English football with Manchester United after four years in Germany, where he needs to get on the ball both high up the field and surrounded by complementary playmakers before we see him at his best.

His talents mean it is a case of when, rather than if, he makes such a move, though. 

Gakpo also told The Times: “I was close to leaving (in the summer). I spoke to Erik ten Hag a few times at Manchester United. In the end the deal didn’t go through, which was a shame — for me and my development, and because Manchester United is one of the biggest clubs in the world, but also for PSV, because to transfer a player to Manchester United is a good thing for the club.

“It ended about a week before the end of the transfer window and in that week I had to decide if I would go to Leeds or Southampton. In the end I stayed, but it was a stressful period.”

gakpo-psv


Gakpo and Simons have developed a strong understanding for PSV (Photo: Photo Prestige/Soccrates/Getty Images)

Gakpo made his full international debut last summer and is now on nine caps (with three goals and two assists).

Recent games have seen head coach Louis van Gaal go with a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 shape, with many attacks running through Memphis Depay, who plays as the central striker, and Steven Bergwijn, who cuts in from the left.

Gakpo’s talent and good form could see him have a breakout tournament at the World Cup starting in just over a month, but there are some questions as to how he is best integrated into the Netherlands’ starting XI.

He might one day take a similar career path to Memphis and become an out-and-out No 9, although his passing game could see him develop in another direction. 

“Van Gaal is still searching for the best role,” Goodijk says. “The last games he played as a No 10 behind Memphis and Bergwijn but obviously he can also play as one of the two forwards, or on the left in a front three.

“At the moment I would say he is pretty certain to be a starter in Qatar, most likely as a No 10. Memphis is still the main man in attack, though.”

PSV hope to retain Gakpo’s talents after the World Cup and have him finish this season with them. And their recently published financial records suggest they can again rebuff any cut-price offer for the winger. However, an impressive tournament for Gakpo could make it harder for them.

“One thing is very clear: next summer, they have to sell to stay financially healthy,” Goodijk says. “It will be interesting though, what happens if a big bid comes in in January, after the World Cup. PSV don’t want to sell him in January, but they are not in the position to deny a very big bid.”

Who knows exactly where, geographically-speaking, Gakpo goes from here? But Scheepers hopes that when the time comes, the Premier League is where the winger lands. “I think that competition, with everything around it, is perfect for him,” he says. “It’s right for him — so long as it’s with the club who are best for his development.”

PSV know how the land lies and Dutch football has long been prone to the reach of teams in Europe’s bigger leagues.

Gakpo can expect to have a pick of destinations, although the consequence of his form is that he is less and less affordable and, in some respects, less and less attainable.

He will want a certain level of football when he says goodbye to Eindhoven. Anyone signing him will need a certain level of budget. PSV, rightly, will expect bidders to go big with offers they cannot refuse.

“The choice he makes, I don’t think it’s going to be about him making good money,” Scheepers says. “He’ll make a choice based on how he’s going to develop. When you go from Holland to somewhere like England, you need time to develop. After PSV, whenever that is, he’ll need somewhere which gives him space and a plan, a good programme, always playing in his best position.

“I’ve said to him many times, ‘Make the right decision’ — and I think he will. The most scary thing when I think about Cody is that he goes to a club where he’s just a number, no more than a number.”

Gakpo, on this path, is so much more than that.

(Top image: Photos by Getty Images; design by Eamonn Dalton)

Update on Youtube Can Cody Gakpo transfer rejuvenate Liverpool's attack? | Premier League | NBC Sports

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