The Premier League is the “perfect competition” for Cody Gakpo, who will shine at Liverpool in the near future.
That’s according to Wesley Sneijder, who cannot see the Dutch forward becoming another player to arrive from the Eredivisie and struggle.
Gakpo arrived at Anfield in a €42m move at the beginning of this month after over a year of being linked with a switch to England.
That came after several impressive years with PSV in the Eredivisie, where he managed 55 goals and 50 assists in 159 games in all competitions.
He has also impressed for the Netherlands, with six goals and two assists in 14 games so far including three goals at the World Cup in Qatar.
Whether he can carry that over for Liverpool in the Premier League remains to be seen, though, with the path between the Eredivisie and England a well-worn but often difficult one.
Numerous players down the years have shone in the Netherlands but struggled to repeat that in England’s top flight.
“I think it’s different for a central striker than for someone like Gakpo who comes from the side. That’s where the spaces are in England. I think it’s a perfect league for him,” Soccer News report him saying to Veronica Offside.
That’s not an opinion completely shared by journalist Wim Kieft, who feels the Reds will need to give Gakpo time to adapt.
“The big question is whether they can also do it in England where it goes five times faster. The advantage is that he did quite well at the World Cup,” Kieft added.
“Bergwijn failed in England, for example. Gakpo does exude power. Whether Antony is better given his transfer fee? That was just pure necessity, who cares. Antony is also just really struggling. You need a long time to keep up with the pace.
“Zlatan Ibrahimovic didn’t understand what was happening in England either, so that will take getting used to. And Liverpool have a lot of strikers.”
