For Cody Gakpo, the celebration said it all.

Liverpool may have been two goals to the good and cruising against Tottenham Hotspur by the time he towered above Cristian Romero to bullet Harvey Elliott's delivery past Guglielmo Vicario, but that didn't stop Gakpo from airing the frustrations of a difficult season at Anfield.

Even though the Reds' hopes of winning the Premier League are practically over after a ruinous April saw them fall by the wayside and behind both Manchester City and Arsenal, the Dutchman wheeled away to celebrate in front of the Kop and executed an emphatic knee-slide he had a steely look between his eyes as he persisted with a successful resurgence from a challenging start to 2024 on Merseyside.

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It is little surprise then that Gakpo was so effusive in his celebration as he fired Liverpool into a three-goal lead against Champions League-chasing Tottenham.

After all, it was his finest performance for the club since he masterminded the 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United last March.

Since then, there have been ad-hoc flashes of quality from Gakpo, mainly when deputising in the League Cup and Europa League, to serve as a reminder as to why the Reds moved swiftly to strike a deal with PSV Eindhoven for the forward ahead of Premier League rivals United 18 months ago.

On Sunday afternoon, though, those flashes were harnessed together by a mature line-leading performance.

In the first half, it was his cross that, after bringing the ball under his spell with a deft touch, invited Mohamed Salah to open the scoring as he headed past Vicario at the back post inside the opening 20 minute.

So assertive and self-assured was Gakpo's performance that it was reminiscent of his early days at Anfield in 2023, when he endeared himself to Kopites with goals against United and Everton and, at one stage, was hailed as the ideal replacement for the soon-to-be-departing Roberto Firmino.

However, last summer such plans were shelved as Gakpo was made to facilitate Liverpool's search for solutions in midfield in the aftermath of a failed big-money move to sign Moises Caicedo.

Consequently, the Netherlands international started the Premier League opener at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea alongside Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister in the engine room.

Since then, opportunities in the attack have been hard to come by for Gakpo, whose 15 Premier League starts are dwarfed by those of Darwin Nunez (22), Salah (26) and Luis Diaz (30) and, until last weekend's start against Spurs, was level with the 14 that the injury-stricken Diogo Jota has managed in a stop-start campaign.

In essence, Gakpo's versatility and application had counted against him in some respects as he was regarded as Liverpool's chief utility performer in the first months of the season.

I would say no.

“The offensive part of the role he can definitely play, but with the defensive things which he was not used to, that cost him a bit of confidence in moments, you could see that."

It's why Gakpo's gradual re-emergence in recent weeks, initiated after a confidence-zapping FA Cup cameo at Old Trafford, can act as a timely reminder to Nunez and his long-term ambitions at Liverpool.

Irrespective of what the critics say, it has generally been a prosperous season for the Uruguayan as he has tallied more than 30 goal contributions across all competitions.

But after glaring misses in last month's 2-2 draw at United as well as in the defeats against Crystal Palace and Everton all but ended the Reds' hopes of winning the Premier League, Nunez can have few objections about being named on the substitutes' bench in three of Liverpool's last four outings.

However, the 24-year-old is unique and few players, if any at all, have ever experienced the extraordinary levels of support that he has had since joining from Benfica.

But after storming down the tunnel after Sunday's 4-2 win over Tottenham, while the rest of his team-mates basked in the returning feel-good factor at Anfield, and just hours later dropping cryptic social media hints, now is the time for Nunez to repay the unwavering faith shown to him by Kopities week in, week out over the last two seasons.

Gakpo can show him just how to do that.


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