Since joining Liverpool in a €42m transfer from PSV at the start of January, Cody Gakpo is still to have any goals or assists for the club.
The Reds’ new star has had six starts for the Jurgen Klopp’s side, but just like the rest of the team, is struggling a little to show his best so far.
However, this period of adaptation is well understood by his home country’s media. Because as De Telegraaf columnist Wim Kieft writes about Gakpo’s start at Liverpool, he claims the player still has plenty of time to adapt to the Premier League and succeed there.
“That boy has come to the club during a difficult period, but nobody is saying ‘no’ to Liverpool,” Kieft writes for De Telegraaf.
“It remains a great transfer for him. Fortunately, Liverpool also buys some players, because Klopp has never refreshed firmly. Gakpo should not be ashamed that things are not going great right away.”
The pundit also takes the example of big stars who had adaptation issues in English football, claiming Gakpo couldn’t simply arrive from the Eredivisie and be ready for the challenge.
“When Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba came into the Premier League as big and older stars, the first two months in the field you saw them looking around with a look of ‘what’s happening here?’
“The pace is so much faster than in other leagues and certainly than the Dutch. You need time to get used to the physical side.”
It turns out that Kieft also has a couple of things to say about Jurgen Klopp’s assistant Pepijn Lijnders. He points out that with the Reds struggling this season, you ‘no longer hear’ from the Dutch coach anymore.
It’s claimed that Lijnders ‘was often at the front to claim a small share of the success’, but with things not going great at Anfield this season, he’s disappeared for a while.
