Following the departure of Luis Diaz over the summer, Cody Gakpo has become a firm lock to start games on the left for the Reds this season, and he is one of the few Liverpool players to appear in every
league and European game so far this season for manager Arne Slot.
Some would argue competition for the position exists in Federico Chiesa, who has to all appearances impressed any time he’s been given a chance yet seems to remain out of favour. There’s also Hugo Ekitike, who plays on the left regularly for France to accommodate Kylian Mbappe.
Despite Liverpool’s struggles, and Gakpo’s own relatively poor form, for Slot the player appears undroppable. He has been in the starting eleven more now than even Mohamed Salah following the manager’s decision to bench the club legend in the last two matches.
“That’s an interesting way to look at it,” was Slot’s response when asked if Gakpo is suffering from a lack of competition, at least from players the manager would consider as alternatives. “You could also look at it a player playing a lot can get consistency and confidence.”
“If I talk to players that don’t play every game mostly their answer is ‘I need to play every minute, that gives me confidence and I can bring the most out of myself.’ Now you say the opposite. The reason I haven’t tried Hugo a lot off the left is Alexander Isak has often been not available.
“And Rio [Ngumoha] has had minutes, but I think for a 17-year-old he’s had much more minutes than any other 17-year-old at another club. So I don’t think Cody suffers from the fact that he doesn’t have competition, because there are players that can play in his position.”
There was no mention of Chiesa as a viable alternative to Gakpo. The 28-year-old Italian international recently came on in the 86th minute against Sunderland and tacked back to his own penalty area, preventing what would have been a winning goal for the opposition.
