Cody Gakpo recalls feeling of ‘relief’ after one of his first chats with Arne Slot at Liverpool | OneFootball

Cody Gakpo has spoken of the ‘relief’ that he felt after one of his first conversations with Arne Slot last summer.

Since replacing Jurgen Klopp in 2024, the Liverpool head coach has made some notable tweaks in terms of formation and players’ roles within the team, with his fellow Dutchman one of those who underwent a positional shift.

Having been used as a centre-forward for much of last season, the 25-year-old has been deployed almost exclusively on the left flank this term, a change which has helped him to net 16 goals since the start of the campaign.

Gakpo welcomes positional change

In an interview with the Liverpool Echo, Gakpo recalled the chat he had with Slot last summer about his position within the team and expressed satisfaction with being moved out to his preferred wide berth.

The Reds’ number 18 said: “One of my first conversations with the manager here was about the position. I was wondering what he thought, because I knew also that I can do a lot better than I did before if I play in my right position

“Obviously he knew me already from the Netherlands, and I’d just come back from the Euros which were good for me.

“He just said, ‘You have to focus on the left wing, I’m not going tell you that you’re going play all the games because we have Lucho (Luis Diaz) and other players who can come in and play who are really good, but if you come in or if you play, this is most likely the position you will play’.

“There was already for me a kind of a relief that I can develop there and become the player I always imagine I can be. I’m working towards that point now and hopefully I can get better than I am today and help the team more as much as I can.”

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Gakpo and Liverpool reaping dividends from left-sided role

Gakpo has already scored one more goal this season than in the whole of 2023/24, despite playing almost 1,000 fewer minutes up to this point of the current campaign (Transfermarkt).

That increased rate of output would immediately indicate that Slot did the right thing straight away by moving him to the left flank, even if it meant that the ex-PSV Eindhoven forward was playing second fiddle to Luis Diaz in the autumn due to the Colombian’s prolific form at the time.

Patience proved to be a virtue as, prior to his injury last month, the 25-year-old had started 13 consecutive Premier League games over the winter, with seven top-flight goals in that time including strikes against both Manchester clubs and one in the 2-2 draw with Fulham when were down to 10 men for most of the game.

Next up for Gakpo is the Carabao Cup final, a tournament which has proven to be something of a speciality for him since joining Liverpool two years ago, with nine goals in 11 appearances.

He didn’t quite look up to speed when coming on against Paris Saint-Germain in midweek after coming back from injury, and Stephen Warnock questioned the wisdom of Slot bringing him on, but we wouldn’t bet against him starting in his favoured left-sided position at Wembley on Sunday and adding to his tally in the competition that he seems to love!