Cody De Facto
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And that he doesn't score enough goals.
And that he doesn't play anywhere as much as Gakpo.
Also, Chiesa back to being sidelined. It's like with Salah out Chiesa is out too.
That shot at the start of the second half just landed in my garden.
His goals per minute throughout his career is nowhere near Gakpos. I'm not saying Gakpo is the answer, but if he's not, Chiesa definitely isnt. Gakpo is a very good player to have in the squad, but I don't think he should be starting as much as he is.
Gakpo is fine as a rotation player (as he was) but not as a nailed on starter week in week out.
He posts decent numbers and doesn’t get injured (touch wood). That’s what you want from that kind of player.
It’s not his fault we didn’t sign a replacement for Diaz (unless he was making demands behind the scenes in which case it obviously is).
He posts decent numbers and doesn’t get injured (touch wood). That’s what you want from that kind of player.
It’s not his fault we didn’t sign a replacement for Diaz (unless he was making demands behind the scenes in which case it obviously is).
Yes because he’s not getting the minutes.
I juat don't get why Gakpo is getting so much stick when neither of our other players are contributing numbers in the attacking end. Our next most productive starting player, now that Salah is culled, is probably VVD. Ekitike, Isak, and Wirtz may well start contributing but they are nowwhere there yet.
Just let that sink in before you call for Gakpo to be dropped.
For folks claiming that Semenyo or whoever flavour of the month is gonna come in and score 20 goals or whatever, it is totally different playing for us and playing for Bournemouth. It's not like we haven't try, better players, even the ones that costed us £XXX millions have struggled. It's not like all of them had gone shit overnight once they tasted Anfield water, it's just a different ballgame altogether.
Just let that sink in before you call for Gakpo to be dropped.
For folks claiming that Semenyo or whoever flavour of the month is gonna come in and score 20 goals or whatever, it is totally different playing for us and playing for Bournemouth. It's not like we haven't try, better players, even the ones that costed us £XXX millions have struggled. It's not like all of them had gone shit overnight once they tasted Anfield water, it's just a different ballgame altogether.
Was it you that didn’t like Diaz?
Yeah, he was not productive. He could go on to win the ballon d'or for all I care, he just didn't do it for us.
Between the forwards who shits around most of the game and then pops up with goals / assists, or the forwards who runs and runs and produces nothing of note, I choose the former.
That's about it.
I thought so. Thought it was ironic to comment on opinions re: Gakpo when you held quite an extreme view of Diaz.
Everyone has their favs / punching bags I guess eh.
One thing about Gakpo is that he can go on a run of scoring, and has a lot of types of goals in his locker. This season though he's been very one dimensional. If he's building a connection with Isak on the pitch - that is only a good thing.
I don't particularly dislike any players, it's about the numbers and whether they are doing their main job. If Diaz was giving us his Bayern numbers playing as a left FW, why would I not want him.
He didn't, in 4 seasons, so that's that.
Diaz out scored Gakpo last season for us.
Also, if nothing else, this season so far should serve as an important lesson about team cohesiveness.
Diaz never hit Mane levels but he gave us something we now lack.
Diaz was largely great for us. Perhaps not consistently skinning his man, but did everything else.
Held the ball up
Progressed the ball
Rarely wasted it
Scored and assisted
Could play through the middle
Defended and got stuck in
Was a right nightmare to play against
Gakpo has had periods where he's been great for us, but it's not now. He's been only marginally better than a woeful Salah this year. Same thing over and over.
Great to see him get to the by- line and cut it back for Isak to score. He can do it, but almost needed someone else to force him to do it (Wirtzs through ball). Needs to do this consistently now and build relationships with Kerkez, Wirtz, and Isak, as this is our team going forward.
Held the ball up
Progressed the ball
Rarely wasted it
Scored and assisted
Could play through the middle
Defended and got stuck in
Was a right nightmare to play against
Gakpo has had periods where he's been great for us, but it's not now. He's been only marginally better than a woeful Salah this year. Same thing over and over.
Great to see him get to the by- line and cut it back for Isak to score. He can do it, but almost needed someone else to force him to do it (Wirtzs through ball). Needs to do this consistently now and build relationships with Kerkez, Wirtz, and Isak, as this is our team going forward.
What if the former is only being “productive” by your crude measure only in 1 in 3 matches or 1 in 4 matches. Would you still choose the former and accept a passenger for the matches he’s not scoring?
Cody is getting criticism because he’s not scoring in enough matches. You shouldn’t be defending him if you were consistent with your criticism.
I have no desire to talk about Diaz since he is not here anymore. I didn't bring him up, I was just merely responding and I have no desire to go into THAT debate again.
My comments is about what we have in the squad at the moment. Gakpo, specifically. If not Gakpo / Salah whom folks have been trying to drop, then who else is going to provide / score for us?
None of them stepped up when we had our terrible run anyway. If you are going to lean towards Chiesa and Nguohma then no, sorry, unproven. If Wirtz, Ekitike, Isak are more or less struggling in our setup, I won't rely on a kid and a sicknote.
If we didn't turn towards that kid and sicknote in the limited time they've had this season, we'd be 4 points worse off this season and down in 15th.
You have to be the biggest balloon headed fucking meff head to think we wouldn't be in a better position had the bald fucking fraud not made better use of the squad, get him the fuck out. His football stinks, his man management stinks, what comes out of his mouth stinks, he has a face I'd love to cave in and his voice makes me want to strangle him.
You have to be the biggest balloon headed fucking meff head to think we wouldn't be in a better position had the bald fucking fraud not made better use of the squad, get him the fuck out. His football stinks, his man management stinks, what comes out of his mouth stinks, he has a face I'd love to cave in and his voice makes me want to strangle him.
If Slot, whose head was more or less on the line, resisted starting the 2 world beaters, I will take his position for it.
Ultimately, Gakpo is still one of our best attackers despite his flaws. Who knows maybe Chiesa will start one day and can't stop scoring. By then for sure, drop Gakpo. Before that, Gakpo is still one of the best attacking options we have at this moment.
You need to do some relaxation therapy. You'll feel better, even a few calming breaths.
He's been terrible all season and at his best he's still only a 7/10, he's a big reason why in the midst of a crisis this season. He's a big lumbering fanny.
Runs the ball out of play, first touch is like a tackle, shots flying into row z. Rince and fucking repeat.
No wonder we're desperate to release Semenyo from his contract.
Objectively Gakpo is the top scorer + assister for us this season. Nonwithstanding the criticism about his predictability etc.
For me the key point is that if you have cut-in-and-shoot merchants on both wings, this by definition means your central striker will be starved of service. Our great attacking trio under Klopp worked because all 3 had very different skillsets - I feel that Gakpo and Salah are too similar in the way they play and while both can be more than cut-in-and-shoot wingers at their best, whenever they are low of confidence that’s the basic pattern they fall into and then it completely kills anything Wirtz and Isak/Ekitike are trying to build through the middle and our attacking play becomes horribly predictable and ineffective. Someone here made a point of comparing this to the United days of Rashford and Anthony and I think this is spot on.
So for me the solution Slot MUST find is mostly playing only one of Salah and Gakpo at any given time. When Salah sits, Szobo can play on the RW as he did on Sunday; when Gakpo sits, Wirtz can be the nominal LW with Szobo in the middle - it’s a good thing many of our front 4 players are versatile! This arrangement will give our attack a lot more balance and unpredictability and allow the crucial central link-up between Wirtz and the CFs to develop and flourish.
There is a reason why he doesn’t play though. I like Chiesa but I don’t get some the mystical legend levels though on here.
He has had chances albeit limited, just doesn’t look capable of playing 90 to the levels we need. Also think Ekitike overall needs to do a lot better, if we judged Nunez by much harsher levels.
Diaz made it work last season as he would drop deep and get out of Cody's and Mo's way.
Pretty much like Bobby did for Sadio and Mo.
In theory, at least, Wirtz could play that false 9 role
View: https://x.com/Squawka/status/1995486239055901116
Few would have picked Cody Gakpo as Liverpool’s most-productive attacker at the start of the season. But here we are, now in December, and the Dutchman leads the way for goals and assists.
In fact, few people would’ve pictured Gakpo being in Liverpool’s starting XI this season after their summer of spending. The Reds spent a combined £304million on Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike, breaking the British transfer record for the former.
With all three new attackers favouring the left side of the attack in one way or another, Gakpo was expected to have more of a squad role — even after Luis Diaz’s departure. Bayern Munich had reportedly been interested in Gakpo, before switching their attention to the Colombian.
There were still doubts over Gakpo’s role in the squad heading into the new campaign. So it was a bit of a surprise to everyone when the 26-year-old put pen to paper on a new, long-term deal at Anfield. It was described as a reward for his good form.
Gakpo was directly involved in 14 goals in the league last season, scoring 10 and providing four assists to help Liverpool to the title. Although he started as a depth option off the bench, Gakpo eventually made the left-wing role his own, with Diaz deployed as a false nine. Only Diaz (14) and Mo Salah (29) scored more Premier League goals for Liverpool last season.
And Gakpo has carried that form into the new campaign.
Fans’ frustrations
Gakpo has been a bit of a divisive figure amongst Liverpool fans. Some have been frustrated with his predictable approach in the final third. He’ll forever pick up possession, cut inside and look to get a shot off from a low value area. He ignores Milos Kerkez, whether the Hungary full-back is overlapping or underlapping. And he’ll simply turn a blind eye to teammates in better positions centrally.
If he was a little more efficient with this approach it might not be as much of an issue. But he’s wasteful. He’s taken 32 shots this season and hit the target on just six occasions. Gakpo has also missed some sitters in big games. He headed wide in the loss to Manchester United and failed to guide an effort into the net in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City. These moments stand out.
The frustration is understandable. Gakpo’s doing these things when Liverpool aren’t playing well. He’s doing this when Liverpool are losing. It’s easy to look at these moments and think had he done something different, the outcome would’ve been more positive for the Reds.
Gakpo shows up
But Gakpo has arguably been the one constant in the attack for Slot this season. He has the most goal involvements for the Reds with seven. He’s one of only five players to have over 1,000 minutes in the Premier League this term, backing up the idea that he’s one of Slot’s trusted group alongside the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai and, perhaps surprisingly, Ibrahima Konate.
Gakpo has also only missed two big chances. For context, Salah has missed six and Isak has missed five. So, to summarise here, the the Dutchman has the highest Expected Goals average in the team, he’s consistently having a set number of chances and he’s missed fewer big chances than Salah and Isak.
Gakpo is stepping up too.
He’s scored against Bournemouth, Chelsea, Man Utd and now West Ham United. While the shot map shows he’s taking a number of low value efforts from distance, the stats highlight the fact he’s not a bad finisher, with four goals from an xG total of 4.4. It isn’t that much of an underperformance.
The Dutchman should probably have more assists to his name too. The assist for Isak against West Ham was just his third of the season. That’s despite having an Expected Assists total of 4.2. While his finishing has sometimes let him down, the finishing of others have also let him down as a creator.
A lot of fans seem confused as to why Slot persists with his compatriot. The truth is likely simple. He knows what he’s going to get from Gakpo. He’s a consistent goal threat and a reliable creator in what is, right now, a transitional Liverpool team.
