Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher thinks the Reds may have found their replacement for Roberto Firmino in Cody Gakpo.
Gakpo finally opened his Liverpool goalscoring account against Everton on Monday night.
Gakpo added the second goal for Liverpool in a 2-0 win over their bitter Merseyside rivals.
The Dutchman arrived from PSV Eindhoven in January and has taken a little while to really get going.
Gakpo clearly has bags of quality though and the hope is that this goal can really get him firing on a regular basis.
The 23-year-old’s versatility means it’s unclear just where Gakpo will play in the Liverpool system moving forward.
Gakpo can play out wide, up front or behind a striker, leaving Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville to ponder his future role.
Jamie Carragher thinks Cody Gakpo could be Liverpool’s new Roberto Firmino
If you look at the average positions from Liverpool’s win over Everton, Gakpo appears to be in a Roberto Firming-like role.
Gakpo’s average position is much deeper than fellow attackers Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah.
That is very reminiscent of Firmino’s ‘false nine’ role, allowing space for Sadio Mane and Salah to run in behind.
Gakpo was known as a left winger in the Netherlands but Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp may have seen something in the Dutchman to play in that Firmino role.
That’s something Jamie Carragher spotted on Sky Sports last night and he thinks the role could suit Gakpo given his ability on the ball.
“I think it’s interesting in the role of Nunez and Gakpo because Nunez has been brought as a centre forward and Gakpo has played most of his games on the left side of a front three but when you actually think of how Liverpool have played with that famous front three for so many years, it’s been Firmino dropping in and the wide players have had the penetration and the pace.”
“I just think actually watching Gakpo, it feels like his profile is more similar to Firmino than the other wide players who have blistering pace to run in behind. Could it actually be what we’ve seen tonight where Nunez finds himself on the left a lot more and Gakpo actually plays in that hole? His main strength, when I’ve watched him in these first few weeks, is actually with the ball. When the ball comes into his feet, you don’t feel like he’s gong to lose it.”
Gary Neville then asked whether Gakpo could play in a midfield three for Liverpool and support the likes of Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, Nunez and Salah in attack.
Carragher noted that Gakpo could feasibly be similar to Newcastle United star Joelinton in terms of playing a box-to-box role having previously been an attacking player, and believes you don’t normally see a player of his size and physique playing out wide and that may help him play centrally in the future.
“You see the actual size of him, you don’t normally see that. The one person when you say that, that just comes to my mind and has been a revelation doing it, is probably Joelinton at Newcastle. He seems to have a similar sort of physique, whether he could go back into midfield, I’m not sure,” he added.
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