In a recent media interview, legendary Manchester United defender Gary Neville shared a conversation between him and Dutch soccer great Van Nistelrooy centered around young Liverpool striker Cody Gakpo. The conversation not only revealed some information about Gakpo's positioning at the start of his career, but it also sparked a wide-ranging discussion about the youngster's versatile performance at Liverpool.
Neville revealed that when Gakpo had just joined Liverpool and was showing some struggles, he made it a point to ask Van Nistelrooy about the player. As Manchester United had also expressed interest in Gakpo, Neville was naturally curious about the future of the young talent. Van Nistelrooy, one of the icons of Dutch soccer, has an in-depth knowledge of Gakpo's performances during his time at Eindhoven.
According to Fanny, Gakpo was mainly used as a left winger during his time at Eindhoven. This information was both surprising and reasonable to Neville, as he had seen Gakpo tried out in different positions at Liverpool by Coach Jurgen Klopp, including the false nine, center forward and even midfield. Fanny's explanation made Neville realize that although Gakpo showed versatile qualities at Liverpool, his talent and ability may have been most prominent at left winger.
Neville also mentioned Gakpo's performances in Dutch national team matches, praising him for looking very agile and playing both clean and direct, while also possessing a good sprint with the ball. These qualities made Gakpo stand out on the field and won him the favor of many fans and experts.
Looking back at Gakpo's performance in Liverpool last season, he made 53 appearances for the team, scoring 16 goals and dishing out 6 assists. This figure is not amazing, but considering the process of trying and adapting to different positions, as well as Liverpool's overall tactical adjustments and changes, Gakpo's performance has been impressive enough.
