Cody Gakpo’s biggest changes under Liverpool manager Arne Slot

A big change in a short time is seeing the Dutchman become a key player for their title charge.

Transcript

00:00Looking at Liverpool and Cody Gatpern, obviously it was a transfer that they really tried hard

00:06to get in and maybe didn't hit the ground running immediately under Jurgen Klopp, a

00:10bit of a slow burner. But since Arne Schlott's come in in the summer, he's returned from

00:16a player who was in multiple different positions to then Schlott's put him back onto the left

00:21and he's looking fantastic in game weeks. He's obviously got player of the match in

00:27a number of games this season and he's really helping their title bid. What are the key

00:33differences that Arne Schlott's brought to Cody Gatpern's game and how impressed have

00:38you been with him so far this season?

00:39As you say, the main one has been his position. You rightly referred to that he was mainly

00:47a central striker at Liverpool when he came in, even though he played on the left at PSV

00:53which was a little bit of a surprise at the time because he was so prolific for PSV, but

00:59Liverpool had Lewis Dias at the time also. He also played in central midfield at times

01:06for Liverpool last season and I think Jurgen Klopp referred to it and said that maybe that

01:09dented his confidence a little bit. But since he's come in, Arne Schlott's first press

01:16conference was asked about Gatpern's position because he had such good euros, didn't he?

01:21He was asked what he sees as his best position and he said, well, pretty much you'll see

01:25it when I play, which turns out is on the left wing. He referred to it after the Leicester

01:31game that they've changed how they play the wingers slightly. They want to get them in

01:36more one-on-one situations and Cody Gatpern, when he's got the ball at his feet, he's difficult

01:41to stop. He's one of these wingers that you know what he wants to do a lot of the time

01:47which is cut inside and get a shot off or get a cross off. But you just can't stop it

01:53sometimes because he's so quick and so powerful. But then he'll have the support of Andy Robson

02:00or Costa Simacasa overlapping or sometimes he will go to the left and try and get to

02:04the byline. So that keeps the defender thinking really. So a little bit of a guessing game

02:10for the defender, which you've got to do because if he was cutting in every single time, then

02:15defences will double up on him. But yeah, he's been massive for Liverpool. He's been a real

02:23key player. Ten goals already this campaign. He's really starting to come into life now because

02:28he did have a difficult enough start and you were wondering, is he going to really click forward

02:35and where's his best position? How are Liverpool going to get him into the team? And he doesn't

02:39start every single game because Liverpool have got Luis Diaz, but Alan Slott's played Luis Diaz

02:46as a central striker at times this season, which has allowed both Gakpo and Diaz to get on the

02:53pitch. It's been interesting how he's been deployed and yeah, he just looks like a player

02:58who's definitely getting better.