Jurgen Klopp has been accused of exaggerating Liverpool newcomer Cody Gakpo’s debut last week.
Fans were given a first sighting of Gakpo as he played almost the full game of Saturday’s FA Cup draw against Wolves. By and large, it was a decent, if unspectacular debut from the £35m man.
But, as quoted by Soccer News via Voetbal International, Dutch columnist Nico Dijkshoorn seems to have taken issue with Klopp’s assessment of his new signing.
“After a game in which Gakpo played 83 minutes, he was extensively complimented for daring to give a failed deep pass to Mohamed Salah,” he said of the 23-year-old’s involvement in Salah’s go-ahead goal.
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“It was a pass that Gakpo [played] at PSV 47 times per game from his foot, but Klopp and Salah did not get tired of talking about it. How the failed pass fell on top of a defender’s head and accidentally bounced through at Salah’s feet, yes that was great class of a still so young train pusher.”
Yes, how dare Klopp have the nerve to praise his own player, and so publicly too! Bizarre.
Gakpo joins the ‘sinking ship’
This wasn’t the end of Dijkshoorn’s rant. The poet also voiced his displeasure over how Klopp had presented Gakpo upon his signing for Liverpool.
The Reds boss called the forward a player who wanted to ‘push the train,’ rather than jump on it. As a reference to Liverpool’s difficult season, this felt like a rather fitting analogy. Dijkshoorn, however, wasn’t having any of it.
“Klopp spoke in interviews last week about Gakpo as if he was talking about a very fragile deer, with legs like matches so thin,” he said. “He thought it was incredibly clever that Gakpo had jumped on a sinking ship. Jurgen formulated it slightly differently. You had players who jumped on a moving train and enjoyed the wind in their hair, but you also had players who wanted to push the train. Gakpo was such a player.”
To call Liverpool a ‘sinking ship’ feels a little harsh. Yes, the Reds have been well below-par this season and are in need of a bit of a squad rebuild. But there’s still plenty to play for during this campaign.
Aside from that, Gakpo is clearly being brought in with the next five or more years in mind. With a core of young players like Darwin Nunez, Ibrahima Konate and Trent Alexander-Arnold as well as Cody, Klopp is hopefully building another great side.
Gakpo’s debut wasn’t the clearest signal that he can be a key man in that rebuild. He surely will be though, this is just the beginning. With Nunez expected to miss the Brighton game tomorrow, he should get another early chance to shut this kind of talk down.
source: https://www.rousingthekop.com/
