Arne Slot makes Cody Gakpo admission after spotting change in Liverpool forward - 'not the best thing'

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Liverpool Echo IconSportFootballLiverpool FCArne Slot has been speaking ahead of Liverpool's Premier League clash at Wolves on Tuesday eveningArne Slot believes Cody Gakpo was being affected by his goal drought as he admitted the Liverpool attacker "needed" his strike against West Ham United.Gakpo scored only his third goal since November when notching in the 5-2 Premier League victory over the Hammers at Anfield on Saturday afternoon.The Holland international, who had earlier missed a straightforward opportunity, has been targeted on social media for abuse by a section of the Liverpool fanbase in recent months primarily due to his lack of output.READ MORE: Arne Slot gives new Florian Wirtz injury update and issues caution over returning Liverpool starREAD MORE: Arne Slot is building something 'totally different' but I wouldn't like to play with Mohamed SalahAnd while dismissing suggestions Gakpo was struggling with self-belief, Slot is hopeful the goal will help settle the Reds winger."I was happy because it was the 4-1 goal so that gave us an even more comfortable cushion, but even more happy for him to score because I think he needed that goal," said the Reds boss, whose team are at rock-bottom Wolves on Tuesday evening."I don't think his confidence was gone or away in that regard, but I did see a few times recently that he maybe made different decisions than I'm used to from him."That doesn't always have to mean it's a lack of confidence. But when players are not scoring for a longer and longer (time) they start to think more about their direction, and overthinking is not the best thing you can do."I think that's something different to confidence.

These players, whether it's Cody or Mo or whoever, they know they can have a certain spell without scoring. They've had it before in their careers and they know they will eventually start scoring again."There are periods of time where you don't put that much effort in and the ball just falls to you and you can score, and there are periods of time in your career where you try so hard, so hard and try too hard and overthink, and that's usually not the best thing to do if you want to score a goal."Slot had spoken last week about wanting more goals from his forwards, with Hugo Ekitike, who scored the opener against West Ham, having gone four games without netting while Mohamed Salah still hasn't hit the target in the Premier League since November."I don't judge them only on the goals they score," added the Liverpool head coach on Monday.

"I judge them on different things as well."Attackers are also judged on the fact if we keep a clean sheet as defenders are judged on the fact if we can score from open play because they have to create promising situations for our attackers."But for our attackers, I know how they think and what they want, and that is scoring goals."Ensure our latest sport headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings.Liverpool FCArne SlotCody Gakpo