The Cody Conundrum? What is Cody Gakpo?
There are few players that currently wear a Liverpool shirt, who are more divisive than Cody Gakpo.
Since the Dutchman made the move from PSV Eindhoven in January 2023, the forward has divided opinion as to who and what he is in this Liverpool team.
But, never really has the Dutchman faced such scrutiny, than what he faced after his performance in the 4–3 FA Cup Quarter Final defeat to Manchester United.
So, how have we gotten to this situation? And more importantly where do we go from here?
It is what I have decided to call. The Cody Conundrum.
The crux of the dilemma is mainly down to what position Cody Gakpo and what type of player he is.
So, I decided to do a deep dive into the data of what Cody Gakpo was offering in his native Holland, in comparison to what he has been offering at Liverpool.
PSV Eindhoven — Cody Gakpo.
The PSV Eindhoven star that Liverpool bought can easily be described as a left-winger/left forward.
Before moving to Liverpool in the January window, Gakpo had played 23 games for PSV, all at left-wing, scoring an impressive 12 goals and securing 16 assists.
The season before, Gakpo played 42 games, with all 42 (including 36 starts) coming in the left-wing position.
Again, Cody Gakpo provided impressive numbers, scoring 19 goals and getting 13 assists along the way.
Gakpo was integral for PSV in this time. This is seen a lot in the numbers, not just in his goals and assists, but in game actions, such as ‘Progressive Carries’ and ‘Shot Creating Actions’.
Starting with ‘Progressive Carries’, which are actions which take place where players push their team up the pitch by at least 10 yards.
We can see from data provided by Opta that these progressive actions are a key component to Cody Gakpo’s game. You can see that in the 21/22 season he completed 85 progressive carries, no player made more for Eindhoven.
This continued into the 22/23, where he managed 53 progressive carries and 50 progressive passes. This is only from 14 games, so you would imagine he was on his way to matching or bettering these totals.
With regard to ‘Shot Creating Actions’, which are two offensive actions which lead directly to a shot.
Cody Gakpo is high on this, with 144 in the 21/22 season (6.81 per 90), the second highest came from Mario Gotze, who had 108.
In the 22/23 season, Gakpo managed 101 actions (8.10 per 90) again only from 14 games.
Touches of the ball were important for Gakpo in this PSV side. In 2021/22 he has 1150 touches (54.2 per 90.)
In the 14 games in 2022/23, his averages increased again. With 702 touches (56.2 per 90.)
Liverpool — Cody Gakpo (So Far).
Having been announced around Christmas 2022, as Liverpool were enduring a lacklustre campaign, expectations and excitement were high for Cody Gakpo’s arrival.
However, Cody Gakpo summed up Liverpool’s campaign. Flash in the pan moments of quality.
None more so than the 7–0 victory over Manchester United which Gakpo scored two delightful goals in.
We have mentioned how the player that was a mainstay for PSV Eindhoven was predominantly a left-winger. According to stats from Opta, he only played 85 minutes there for Liverpool in 22/23.
Jurgen Klopp predominantly used Cody Gakpo, throughout the middle in a centre-forward role. Where he made 22 appearances with 19 starts. Scoring six goals and getting two assists.
Gakpo’s game in the Eredivisie was centred around having more touches of the ball, progressive carries and shot creating actions.
The move to the centre of the pitch, by just looking at the numbers has clearly impacted this side of his game.
So touches to start with to paint the picture. In his 21 league appearances, Cody Gakpo had 591 touches of the ball (36.5 per 90) a stark contrast from his Eindhoven numbers.
Progressive carries, his numbers again stick to the trend, they are at 36 (down at 2.22 per 90).
‘Shot Creating Actions’ were vital for Gakpo in Holland, however, his numbers again follow a worrisome trend, they are markedly down at 49 (3.02 per 90).
So, this begs the question. Why? Is it acclimation to a new league and country? Ability? Role? Liverpool’s shocking midfield?
It is perhaps probably a mix of all of that.
Jumping forward to this season, there are positive signs that Cody Gakpo is getting better in this Liverpool system.
So far, Gakpo has played 43 games for Liverpool, scoring 13 and assisting four times.
In the sense of a positional breakdown, Jurgen Klopp has opted for Cody Gakpo to be the most versatile of his forward options.
This being the case that Gakpo has featured in four different positions this season, centre forward, left-winger, right-winger and centre-midfield.
He has continued to play centre forward more consistently, playing 20 times at 1006 minutes, with nine goals and three assists.
From the left, he has featured seven times, at 400 minutes, scoring three and assisting two.
Finally from right-wing and centre midfield, he has featured seven times each (400 minutes and 308 minutes) scoring just the once from right-wing.
However, if we were comparing the numbers of the key categories which would have attracted Liverpool to signing him, those numbers still have not recovered to his PSV levels.
Progressive carries are down at 27 for the Premier League season (2.09 per 90). With ‘Shot Creating Actions’ down also at 36 (2.79 per 90).
However, this is not a stage to stress. There has clearly been a shift in what Jurgen Klopp and Pep Lijnders see Cody Gakpo being for Liverpool.
There have been a lot of comparisons to Roberto Firmino, in terms of Cody Gakpo playing that false-9 role.
So I decided to compare some of the metrics to what Cody Gakpo is being asked to do in comparison to Roberto Firmino from when Liverpool won the Premier League and Sadio Mane from his last season, where he played predominantly centre-forward.
You can see by the stats (provided by Squawka) that Gakpo exceeds Firmino and Mane by many of the defensive metrics.
He is higher, on Duels won both aerially and on the ground. He completed more interceptions, blocks and won more tackles on a per 90 average than Firmino and Mane.
Of course, recoveries and total touches in the opposition’s box could be a lot stronger. But of course we are comparing against a side that conquered all before them in 19/20.
So, where does this leave us?
Cody Gakpo, clearly fits the bill in terms of what Liverpool want as a ‘Roberto Firmino-replacement’.
He is definitely not the same player that Liverpool signed from PSV Eindhoven.
But are we feeling greedy? In the sense of the forward options we have, that we expected more from him?
Or is it that he is going to fall into the category of a Georginio Wijnaldum, where you may see his best work in the ground, and many will ask “what does he offer?”.
Ultimately, there is a player in there. What that player is we are going to have to wait and see.
It will be interesting to see what a new manager would deem Cody Gakpos best position. Whether they take the work done by Klopp and build on that, or they revert him to the player that was at PSV Eindhoven.
