Cody Gakpo is Liverpool’s newest signing, and many are excited to see how he’ll get on at his new club.
The 23-year-old has all of the talent in the world, but, of course, you’re never going to be a success if you don’t gel with your teammates.
Gakpo has to build a rapport with the likes of Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah very quickly, but luckily, Jurgen Klopp seems to believe that Gakpo will fit in perfectly.
In fact, according to The Times, Klopp thinks that Gakpo’s arrival will have a positive impact on two young players at Anfield – Ben Doak and Fabio Carvalho.
This report states that Klopp believes that the chance to work alongside top-level wingers will help these two improve, while he also still plans to give this pair chances at the right times.
We can see where Klopp is coming from when it comes to Doak. After all, he is just 17 and is still finding his feet in senior football, but it’s hard to agree on Carvalho here.
Indeed, Carvalho will be turning 21 at the end of the season, and at that age he wants to be playing senior football regularly, not learning from a player who is only three years older than him.
If anything, Gakpo’s arrival may stunt Carvalho’s growth. After all, there’s now more competition in that left-wing spot where Klopp is seemingly insistent on playing the ex-Fulham man.
Yes, working with Gakpo may help him get to grips with a role he isn’t comfortable with, but with Luis Diaz also in the frame, it’s hard to imagine Carvalho being anything other than the long-term third-choice left-winger in this team, and that’s before we even mention Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez who can both play there.
Carvalho has been described as a ‘special’ talent by Klopp in the past, but his pathway to becoming a Liverpool star is becoming unclear.
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