{"id":404114,"date":"2025-09-07T02:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T02:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/404114\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T02:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T02:07:12","slug":"liverpools-35m-man-is-a-critical-player-for-slot-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/404114\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool\u2019s \u00a335m man is a critical player for Slot this season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Liverpool are certainly the team to beat in the Premier League this season, with the defending English champions reinforcing their squad over the summer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Reds have won their first three <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/english-premier-league\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Premier League<\/a> games in 2025-26, with Arne Slot\u2019s men looking like an ominous prospect.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/alexander-isaks-first-words-as-a-liverpool-player-as-newcastle-star-completes-record-transfer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool signed Alexander Isak<\/a> to end a summer-long transfer saga, while the additions of Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz mean the Merseysiders have a plethora of riches in the final third.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btbf-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@BeyondTheBackFour?sub_confirmation=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>However, an existing <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/liverpool\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool player<\/a> who has just signed a new contract will be a critical component of the club\u2019s efforts to retain their Premier League title.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2232052788-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Arne Slot looks on during Newcastle United v Liverpool\" class=\"wp-image-979740\" \/>Photo by George Wood\/Getty ImagesCody Gakpo a key player for Liverpool<\/p>\n<p>While the likes of Mo Salah and Isak may dominate the headlines this season for Liverpool, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/cody-gakpo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cody Gakpo<\/a> has a very important role to play for Slot\u2019s men.<\/p>\n<p>The Netherlands international moved to Anfield for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2022\/dec\/28\/liverpool-complete-35m-signing-of-world-cup-star-cody-gakpo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a335 million<\/a> in 2022 and recently extended his contract with the Reds.<\/p>\n<p>Gakpo recently admitted Bayern Munich were interested in him over the summer before signing his team-mate Luis Diaz.<\/p>\n<p>But for Liverpool, keeping the versatile forward and locking him down to a new deal looks like a masterstroke.<\/p>\n<p>Gakpo makes left-wing position his own<\/p>\n<p>It will be interesting to see how Slot fits Isak into his new-look forward line, especially given Ekitike has started his Liverpool career by scoring twice in his first three Premier League games.<\/p>\n<p>However, the exit of Diaz and tragic death of Diogo Jota mean Gakpo can make the left-wing position in the Reds\u2019 front three his own.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2215952353-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Liverpool winger Cody Gakpo\" class=\"wp-image-950173\" \/>Photo by Liverpool FC\/Liverpool FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Gakpo\u2019s versatility makes him an important player for Slot, with the former PSV Eindhoven man able to play across the forward line.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old scored 10 Premier League goals last season and is set to have an even more significant impact for Liverpool in 2025-26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool are certainly the team to beat in the Premier League this season, with the defending English champions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,22690,393,162,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-404114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cody-gakpo","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-english-premier-league","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115160576414178668","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404114","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=404114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}