Cody Gakpo will play a dynamic new role at Liverpool this season following the high-profile arrival of Bradley Barcola.<\/p>\n
Despite increased competition across the frontline, transfer expert Pete O\u2019Rourke confirmed the Netherlands international remains integral to manager Andoni Iraola\u2019s tactical setup.<\/p>\n
Barcola\u2019s second-half cameo during Liverpool\u2019s 2-0 victory over Ipswich Town offered a glimpse of the shifting attack.<\/p>\n
With Barcola slotting into his preferred left-wing position, Gakpo moved centrally, showcasing the multi-positional deployment Liverpool intend to use moving forward.<\/p>\n
Pete O\u2019Rourke explains Cody Gakpo\u2019s new Liverpool role<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Football Insider\u2019s Transfer Insider podcast, Pete O\u2019Rourke explained how Iraola plans to maximize Gakpo\u2019s skillset throughout the campaign:<\/p>\n
\u201cCody Gakpo will get plenty of game time for Liverpool this season. He\u2019s such a versatile player and Liverpool didn\u2019t want to lose that\u2014he can play on the left, as a number nine, and he\u2019s been playing out on the right in games this season as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat just shows his versatility and what he can bring to Andoni Iraola\u2019s side, and with Liverpool failing to bring in a recognised right-winger, he will play plenty of minutes in that new role. That is despite the arrival of Bradley Barcola as well, who will play in his preferred left-wing position when he\u2019s ready to make an impact at Liverpool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gakpo almost left Liverpool in the summer<\/p>\n
Gakpo\u2019s importance comes after a summer in which his Liverpool future appeared uncertain.<\/p>\n
Manchester City and Tottenham were both strongly linked with the Netherlands international, with City reportedly making a major offer before Liverpool ultimately rejected approaches for the forward.<\/p>\n
Having decided to keep him, Liverpool can now take advantage of Gakpo\u2019s ability to operate in multiple positions rather than restricting him to the left flank.<\/p>\n
Gakpo has been Liverpool\u2019s best player so far this season<\/p>\n
Gakpo has responded to the summer speculation in the best possible way, emerging as one of Liverpool\u2019s standout performers at the beginning of the campaign.<\/p>\n
The forward scored against Newcastle United and provided an assist against Nottingham Forest before producing another influential display against Ipswich Town.<\/p>\n
Gakpo set up both of Alexander Isak\u2019s goals in the 2-0 victory, underlining his importance to Liverpool\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n
With Barcola adding another elite option to the frontline, Gakpo\u2019s ability to play across the attack could prove even more valuable as Liverpool compete on multiple fronts this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cody Gakpo will play a dynamic new role at Liverpool this season following the high-profile arrival of Bradley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1190383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":["post-1190382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-liverpool","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-liverpool","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117226486033206710","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1190383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}