Manchester United assistant manager Ruud van Nistelrooy has been clear that new Liverpool boss Arne Slot needs to play Cody Gakpo on the left wing to get the best out of the 25-year-old. Gakpo moved to Anfield from PSV at the start of 2023 and has gone on to feature 79 times for the club.
Liverpool shelled out around £37million initially to prise Gakpo away from Holland after he had starred at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The attacker found the back of the net three times at the tournament as his country reached the quarter-finals.
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Gakpo has contributed 23 goals and nine assists for Liverpool, but has been inconsistent in front of goal and has struggled to set the Premier League alight on a regular basis.
Former manager Jurgen Klopp utilised the talented forward as a central striker at times, while also handing him starts as an attacking midfielder and as a left winger.
But Van Nistelrooy, who was named Erik ten Hag’s new assistant coach earlier this summer, is adamant that Gakpo needs to be hurting teams from the left. Gary Neville has revealed details of a conversation the former United team-mates had last year.
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“I went to speak to Ruud just after he (Gakpo) first got to Liverpool, and he was struggling a little bit,” Neville explained on The Overlap. “I asked him about Gakpo because United were looking at him, and he said, ‘He’s a left winger, that’s it’.
“So when Klopp was playing him as a false nine or centre forward, or a bit deeper in midfield at times, Ruud [who had] him at PSV Eindhoven, said, ‘He’s absolutely a left winger’.”
And Neville added: “You watch him for Holland - he looks quick. He runs with the ball, he’s direct - that run he did at the back post [against Turkey at Euro 2024] - he didn’t score because it was an own goal, but [he’s quick].”
Gakpo has often produced his finest performances in a Netherlands shirt and shared the Euro 2024 Golden Boot with five players after bagging three goals at the tournament.
He notched in the group matches against Poland and Austria, before finding the back of the net in the last-16 victory over Romania.
And he is set to return to Merseyside in the coming weeks after being given an extended break following his endeavours in Germany. The Liverpool squad are currently in the USA on a pre-season tour, with their first Premier League match of the season coming in mid-August when they travel to Ipswich.
