Man United’s search for a forward is well known. The forwards in their ranks in the form of Cristiano Ronaldo, Anthony Martial, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Elanga have been misfiring. Barring Ronaldo everyone has been hit with a misfiring bug. Since the arrival of Erik Ten Hag, he was after Antony of his former club Ajax, but United balked by the asking price of Ajax.
However it looks like Man Utd’s search for a forward could be coming to a conclusion with Cody Gakpo who plays for PSV Eindhoven and is recently keen to move to Premier League, to join up with Manchester United. The 2–1 loss to Brighton forced the upper hierarchy to jump in pursuit of forwards. Ex- West Ham striker Marko Arnautovic was linked but the idea was dropped after resistance from United fans. Their attention turned on Cody Gakpo who is currently managed by ex United legend Rudd Van Nistelrooy.
Arsenal were interested in the Dutchman but nothing came of it. But this time around PSV might be forced to sell him if an offer comes in the region of 35 million. Cody, who primarily plays in the left-wing position and is right footed might face competition from Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sanch, who currently own that berth.
Cody’s 12 goals and 12 assists forced teams from far to look out for the youngster. Cody, primarily being a left-winger can also play on the left of a front three and also up front. It’ll be a relief for Ronaldo, who can take turns with him to start for the club.
Seasonal review
Looking at his seasonal map,we can see that even though he covered the left side of the pitch, it was focused mainly in the attacking third of the pitch. We will see more of his actions as we uncover why United went after him.
Passes
Cody is a goal scorer as well as someone who likes providing assists. His abilities prompted United to look out for him. He had 12 assists to his name. He had a passing accuracy of 77%,making 18.7 passes per 90.He had 2.6 key passes per 90.
He had 68% vision to find his teammates. The Dutchman created 48 chances per 90 for his teammates.He is able to dribble past players at ease.He attempted 130 dribbles or 6.13 per 90 out of which he had dribble success ratio of 59.2%. He had attempted 1.18 crosses per 90 out of which it was successful 24% times.
Goal Scoring Threat
Along with his 12 assists, he has scored 12 goals too. We can see from the visualization
that he ranks in the top quadrant, behind Dusan Tadic who had 13 goals and 19 assists to his name.
Along with his 12 goals he had 80 shots to his name, out of which 30 were on target. He has taken shots every 3.77 per 90, out of which they were on target 1.42 times per 90. From the visualization we can see that Gakpo falls in the first quadrant.
He is a lethal forward, because out of 12 goals he scored, 11 were non penalty goals, and one was from the spot kick. He had spot kick conversion with 100% success rate. We can see that he falls into the first quadrant.
Out of the 12 goals he scored 11 were inside the box, while 1 was scored outside the box.He had scored every 159 minutes.Even though he missed big 4 chances, he had decent goals to his name.He had a goal conversion of 15%.
Comparing Cody Stats with United Forwards
- Cristiano Ronaldo- The Portuguese forward had scored 18 goals which saw United scrape by to the Europa League.He scored every 136.6 minutes per goal. However he faltered in assists as he had only 3 assists to his name. While Cody scored 12 goals and he had 12 assists to his name scoring at every 159 minutes.
We can see that Cristiano ranks head and shoulder above him in goals and shots on target. While Cody ranks high in assists,interception and tackles won.
- Marcus Rashford- The Englishman had a season to forget, where he could register only 4 goals to his name. Scoring at every 308.2 per minute. He registered only 2 assists. Under ETH he registered a few goals, Rashford will be looking to rejuvinate himself under the Dutch manager.
Maybe the only thing he was good at was intercepting the balls. While Cody overpowers him in every aspect. Rashford will be looking to redeem himself.
- Jadon Sancho- The Englishman’s exploits in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund made ex-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to get him. They had to wait one year before they got their man for 70 million. But what we saw was beyond understanding.
The forward who terrorized defenders in the Bundesliga was struggling in the Premier League. He could register a mere 3 goals, scoring at every 643.6 minutes, which was eyebrow raising in itself. He could also register only 3 assists. This season he’ll be looking to justify the price tag which made United go after him.
Jadon ranks high on the defensive side, while again he falters on the offensive part.
- Anthony Elanga- The youngster was promoted to first team. He scored only 2 goals,scoring at every 608.5 minutes. He could register 2 assists to his name. This season will be vital for him.
Anthony, like Jadon excels on the defensive part,while he falters on the offensive part.
- Anthony Martial — Martial had a season to forget. He scored 0 goals. He was loaned to Sevilla, there also he could score only 1 goal. He will be looking to redeem himself.
In offensive and defensive aspects he ranked very poor. He’ll be looking to redeem himself this season, having scored in the pre-season.
Final Verdict
United, having missed on Benjamin Sesko, Antony, would be doing anything to get their man.United already has a colorful history with the Eredivisie League, having snapped 13 players from the Dutch League. Some of them were Jaap Stam, Rudd Van Niestelrooy, Park Ji Sung, Alexander Buttner to name a few. United had raided PSV in the past, and with Van Niestelrooy their manager, expected the deal to happen. Will Cody Gakpo be another Red Devil? Watch this space.
