Arne Slot already told to make Cody Gakpo change after Gary Neville chat with ex-Man Utd teammate

Liverpool forward Cody Gakpo was excellent for the Netherlands during the European Championship this summer, playing mainly off the left flank for Ronald Koeman . It led many to wonder whether Arne Slot might have a similar plan next season.

The Reds are not short of options to play off that side of their attack, with Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota both comfortable there as well, but it looks like Gakpo might be best deployed there rather than down the center. It is something that Gary Neville has known for some time having spoken with Ruud van Nistelrooy, who coached him at PSV.

"I went to speak to Ruud just after he [ Gakpo ] first got to Liverpool ," Neville said on the latest episode of Stick to Football , brought to you by Sky Bet . "He was struggling a little bit. I asked him about Gakpo because [Manchester] United were looking at him, and he said, ‘He’s a left winger, that’s it’.

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"So, when [Jurgen] Klopp was playing him as a false nine or center forward, or a bit deeper in midfield at times — Ruud [who had] him at PSV Eindhoven — said, ‘He’s absolutely a left winger’. 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, alongside Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Gravanberch , is yet to return to Liverpool after the European Championship. The trio are still on holiday following their time away with the national team, but could join the USA tour midway through . At that point, the plan for Gakpo might become clearer, with the case for playing him as a winger only having grown further this summer.

Liverpool.com says: With Jota and Darwin Nunez both capable of playing through the middle, having Diaz and Gakpo as the left-sided options would seem the right spread of players in the forward line (with Mohamed Salah and a potential new signing to cover the right-hand side). It remains to be seen what Slot's plan is for his fellow countryman but playing Gakpo off the left, the evidence so far would suggest, seems to get the best out of him.