Cody Gakpo ‘not suffering from lack of competition’, insists Arne Slot

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Gakpo is Liverpool’s fifth-most used player so far this season, and one of only four players – along with Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Dominik Szoboszlai – to feature in every game in the Premier League and Champions League. And that has led to valid concerns over Gakpo’s form without genuine competition, with Liverpool purposely not blocking Ngumoha’s pathway with a new signing but the 17-year-old only playing 58 minutes in league and Europe so far.

“That’s an interesting way of looking at it,” he told journalist Mo Stewart, when asked in his pre-Leeds press conference whether Gakpo was suffering from having less competition for a starting spot. Why Hugo Ekitike and Rio Ngumoha aren’t starting on the left “The reason why I haven’t tried Hugo a lot of times off the left is an obvious one: because of the Alexander Isak situation, that he’s either been not available or not been available to start every single game.

“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. “Usually, like I just said, players prefer to have a situation where they have the confidence and the understanding that they might play many minutes.” Gakpo is clearly a set-in-stone starter for Slot, but that his comments came in the same press conference when he insisted “every player has a possibility to start” in reference to Federico Chiesa may stick out to fans.