There was a sense of deja-vu for Liverpool fans following their 3-1 win over Aston Villa on Boxing Day. Not long after the final whistle, reports emerged claiming the Reds had made their move for long-term transfer target Cody Gakpo. PSV then released a statement in which they said a deal had been struck and the player was heading to Merseyside for a medical.
On Wednesday night, Gakpo was revealed as a Liverpool player in advance of the transfer window officially opening.
This hadn’t been on the cards. All talk had been focused on midfielders, with the Reds hoping to refresh that particular area of their team in the near future and Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Jude Bellingham have all been linked with a move to Anfield.
However, interest from other clubs forced Liverpool into action and a deal for Gakpo was struck. There are many similarities between this deal and the one the Reds agreed with Porto for Luis Diaz last January. That, too, came out of nowhere and was a result of interest from rival clubs. The 2019/20 Premier League champions felt as though they couldn’t let this particular target move to a top-four rival, so they hijacked the deal. With Diaz, it was Spurs. This time around, it is Manchester United.
According to reports, outgoing Sporting Director Julian Ward spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day negotiating with Marcel Brands in order to gazump their North West rivals.
It was a surprise, but should it have been?
A few months back, Dutch journalist Hans Kraay Jr claimed he had spoken with Pep Lijnders and was told that Gakpo was called the “missing link” by Liverpool’s assistant manager. Marcel Brands, the director of football at PSV, followed this up by saying the Reds would be a good club to send the player to in the summer.
Quite clearly, this has been in the pipeline for a while and wasn’t purely a reaction to the news Luis Diaz is out until March.
But why Gakpo?
Why have Liverpool signed yet another forward who favours the left flank when they already have Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota?
While the trio do share some similarities with Gakpo, the Dutch international is different enough to justify the initial £37million outlay.
The 23-year-old may be a goalscorer, but he isn’t just a goalscorer, and that is a vital difference. He will always be a goal threat as Loran Vrielink recently explained in an interview with Neil Jones. Vrielink is a Dutchman, a former PE teacher and professional basketball player. He is also the founder of Tactalyse, a company that offers bespoke, individual tactical coaching for professional footballers and has been working with Gakpo for close to a year.
"I think his strong point definitely was finishing. You see that when he has space, he can get the ball where he wants it for the finish. His actions in finishing are really precise, so I was like ‘OK, I don’t want to touch that!’"
Since the start of last season, Gakpo has found the back of the net 21 times in the Eredivisie. His return of 12 during the 2021/22 campaign was the highest of his career and he was well on course to better that this time around with nine already. His non-penalty xG average of 0.39 across the last 12 months puts him in the 97th percentile for wingers.
However, what makes him such an intriguing option is how creative he is.
Gakpo already has 12 assists in the Eredivisie this season and is on target to surpass the 13 he managed last term. He is in the 97th percentile for shot-creating actions and in the 99th percentile for expected assists per 90, with 0.46. That right there is what makes him different.
The current crop of options Klopp has at his disposal in attack are primarily pure goalscorers. Gakpo is, statistically speaking, more of a creator than he is a scorer. If the Reds are to return to their 4-2-4 shape, Gakpo could be the creative one, allowing Salah, the creator earlier in the season, to be at his best as a goalscorer. It suits the Liverpool No.11, the rest of the forward line and the team.
