Woop woop it's the sound of the Gak-Police
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He's a Twitter scout that loves the sound of his own voice. Used to be an interesting read but now just hate Pep Lijnders for some reason.
Pretty sure a couple of us on here can agree with the last sentiment after that book stunt
Yeah, he's gone bonkers of late, though his general assessment of players is pretty good.
Indeed, I used to enjoy reading them. Not sure what happened in all honesty.
I don't get Nunez esque vibes over his technical ability. Gakpo looks a level above in that regard. Nunez is dangerous when he's the whole pitch to run into and can lift his head, but Gakpo seems to have the strength and dribbling ability to be influential in the deeper areas. There was plenty of Benfica fans mocking Nunezs ability on his exit. Haven't seen the same for Gakpo. The PSV fans really haven't got a bad word to say about him which is reassuring, as is the fact he's club captain at 23.
He's going to come up against far better defenses and players in the PL, but he's also going to playing with the best attack and LB of his life so far, so let's hope he can bring it.
I'm setting my expectations up as an in-form Marcus Rashford. If he can replicate that then it will be money well spent.
He's going to come up against far better defenses and players in the PL, but he's also going to playing with the best attack and LB of his life so far, so let's hope he can bring it.
I'm setting my expectations up as an in-form Marcus Rashford. If he can replicate that then it will be money well spent.
Nunez is several tiers above Gakpo as a prospect IMO
Dmish and this Jan Riha are clearly the same person!
This nerd exodus thing winds me up. They’ve not delivered in ages, our “negotiations” over Nunez and the complete lack of succession planning/bumper contracts meant the whole back office staffed deserved to be sacked.
It's a strange one for me. LW was probably the one area I didn't think we needed to improve on. Perhaps we may listen to offers for Jota in the summer. But he seems to be Firminos heir apparent.
But still leaves Diaz, Nunez and now Gakpo fighting for the same spot. Are we going to keep them all happy?
Still for €42m up front and another rumoured €13-18m in add ons, it's a good price for the quality we are getting.
But still leaves Diaz, Nunez and now Gakpo fighting for the same spot. Are we going to keep them all happy?
Still for €42m up front and another rumoured €13-18m in add ons, it's a good price for the quality we are getting.
Before the injuries we saw Klopp trying what was essentially a 424 line up so there would be more than enough room for Diaz, Gakpo, Jota, Nunez, Salah & Bobby across that front 4.
I'm not sure we can use the Eredivisie as a serious benchmark though - just watching his highlights reel you can see that :
a) the kid has talent and b) the defending was often shite !
Firmino was always going to be leaving in the summer. You can tell his body cannot do it for us anymore. He was never blessed with pace and has lost what he did have.
Regarding Diaz, he would only be able to contribute to a handful of games so makes sense to get someone else in.
Yep. Sadly with Jota being so injury prone and Diaz out for so long, I take it that we can't afford to gamble on not making Top 4.
Agreed, but 14 games, 9 goals and 12 assists are from the Dutch league. Still leaves 20 games, 9 goals and 6 assist from Europa league, World cup and Nations league and others.
I’m a bit concerned there are no pre-season friendlies for Gakpo to go through his “let’s give him time phase”.
Do we go straight into judging his career based on the combined first 30 odd minutes of his debut, spread over a couple of late sub appearances?
Or do we go all Tayto & split into “Nunez can do no wrong” camp, “Gakpo can do no wrong” and a few wankers that hate both and prefer some other random striker no-one gives a fuck about?
Do we go straight into judging his career based on the combined first 30 odd minutes of his debut, spread over a couple of late sub appearances?
Or do we go all Tayto & split into “Nunez can do no wrong” camp, “Gakpo can do no wrong” and a few wankers that hate both and prefer some other random striker no-one gives a fuck about?
If he doesn’t headbutt someone on his home debut he’s off to a flyer.
Costa took a few reds for that at Chelsea, didnt stop him from becoming a top class striker, Suarez did far worst in his time….didnt stop him from becoming a world class striker.
Constant nags towards Nunez is a little tiring now, you can not rate a player without having to repeat yourself 5 times over a day in 5 different threads…it is possible to do that.
The first mention of Gakpo in this forum was from you. I've mentioned him in the past which is a given as I mention lots of players.
The rise of Cody Gakpo
[article]The process never changes for Cody Gakpo. Whether it is a goal and a hat-trick of assists for PSV against Feyenoord in August or being the only man at the World Cup to score in every group-stage game, the next meeting is still scheduled.
There is analysis to do.
Gakpo is in demand, a target for some of the biggest clubs in European football. At 23, the next step will soon be upon him but the learning process will stay the same. He will go through his video clips with his individual tactics coach Loran Vrielink.
One of 175 clients of Tactalyse, the tactical coaching service founded by Vrielink in the Netherlands in 2016, Gakpo is the most high profile among them to be open about this collaboration. It is indicative of his appetite to improve.
“Every client has spent time and money on developing themselves,” Vrielink tells Sky Sports. “They are like students doing an extra course, investing in themselves to become better. They see that they need it so they commit time and effort to it.”
But not every client is as gifted, or as busy, as Gakpo.
“After every game we do sessions, even during the World Cup. He always makes sure that he is on time and he is ready for it, focused on his development. He thinks about his game but not only about his game. He reads books. He is a very smart guy.”
He needs to be. Vrielink prepares 400 clips prior to each meeting and though the two men will go through only a fraction of those in each session, the level of detail might surprise. Analysis is not limited to key moments in games but the seemingly innocuous.
“At PSV, he is a left winger going from outside to inside. Last season, he was a bit more inside. This season, a bit more outside. It depends also game by game what the coach expects from him. But now he is playing as a striker and as a 10 for the national team.
“He was a 10 in the first game and a striker in the next two games. So he is standing on the right side with Memphis Depay or Steven Bergwijn to the left of him. We go through the clips so that he can better orientate his body on the field.
“If his body orientation is always as if he is on the left side of the field and now he is on the right side, everything is completely the opposite. Sometimes we think that you should just be able to do it but everything is different. Your head check is different.”
Gakpo has demonstrated that he can play in any of the attacking positions. “If you adapt, anything is possible,” says Vrielink. Although nominally playing from the right against Qatar, his goal came after cutting inside from the left channel. “That is typical.”
Even this, a finish from just inside the box, brings in-depth analysis. “The first touch was not optimal so he had to find the rhythm with his feet. It was not simple. The action before was crucial. He created depth for himself with his body orientation.
“We discuss this ability to create space in between the lines. Everyone will say that the opponent gave him a lot of space in this situation. No, he created that space for himself. That is what people forget. What was he doing before he received the ball.”
More than goals and assists, this is the focus of their work. It is the process that leads to these goals and assists that Gakpo wanted to devote his spare time to getting right.
Vrielink was introduced to Gakpo by the player’s elder brother Sidney, a good player himself. “He saw what Cody needed.” Together, the three men developed a strategy to elevate his game to the next level. “We made a plan of what to focus on.”
There were two aspects that concerned Gakpo.
The first was his efficiency.
“That was something that he specifically wanted to add. He wanted more goals. In the past, he would go on these long runs with the ball. He is not doing that anymore. He knows his game now. That is so much more important than just having the ball.
“That is what we changed a lot, the efficiency of his actions, of where he should spend his time and energy. Knowing what movements are not important, things he can let his team-mates do while he focuses on the things that he should focus on.”
The second was his duels. Perhaps counter-intuitively, the decision was made that he should seek to avoid them. They presented an injury risk and added little to his game.
“In the past, he would sometimes get injured. Staying out of duels and positioning yourself better, that is something that we spoke about. Stay on your feet. Do not be involved in wasted duels. He wanted to make better decisions with that.”
The results speaks for themselves.
Firstly, Gakpo has started 28 of PSV’s 32 games in all competitions since April and been available for selection for the other four. His output in those games has also increased.
His goals scored per 90 minutes has increased steadily over the past three seasons, while his assists provided per 90 minutes has risen dramatically. He ranks top for both goals and assists in the Eredivisie this season – nobody else in a major league tops both.
“What we see in the data is that he has become way more efficient in the last part of the game. That is now coming out. It is incredible how he has developed himself in the last year. There were signs last season but the world did not see it.
"They are seeing it now.”
Gakpo and Vrielink saw it first because they have their own metrics by which they judge the player’s progress.
"We do not focus on goals and assists, we focus on the amount of chances that he needs to create from his position. That is the key aspect,” Vrielink explains.
“We start with eight as a winger, not including free-kicks or set plays. Can you create eight chances? The ball might not even come but if you make the perfect run and if the ball is given then you are one-on-one with the goalkeeper, for me, that is a chance.
“At the beginning, he could not get that eight. Now we are at 12. Against Feyenoord, he had three assists and one goal but that does not surprise me if you are creating 12 chances per game. By focusing on the chances, you are focusing on the process.”
It was this process that brought satisfaction when Gakpo headed the Netherlands in front against Senegal in their opening game of the World Cup. Frenkie de Jong curled the ball towards goal and Gakpo nipped in ahead of Edouard Mendy to score.
“That was a standout moment,” says Vrielink.
“It was a run from behind where he moved towards the goal. Everybody was running back. He was the only player who made that run in behind. It was 83 minutes. Everybody else on the pitch is moving backwards. He is the one guy who makes that run.
“This run is not out of nothing. We have trained this run many times. It is a basketball run, actually. In football we only talk about running behind but there are six different types of run and this is one of them. It is the perfect run, the perfect timing.
“Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, all the top players, they are so good with their tactical runs still. They do the same things and they do it perfectly. There is a science behind it.
“Those are the goals that stay with you. If we see the things that we have been working on and then he scores from it, that is the job, that is what you want to see.”
Such is Cody Gakpo’s commitment to continuing to improve his game, expect to see a lot more of it at Liverpool, with the Reds reaching an agreement with PSV to sign him in January.
“What we are seeing now is not a surprise. Transfer speculation can affect a player but we have seen that every week his performance has been going up. That is important. If you see performance levels going up then he can play at any level.
“This guy is intelligent enough to get there.
“And together we will prepare him for it.”
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