Jürgen Klopp is pleased with the encouraging actions shown in Cody Gakpo’s debut game for Liverpool. The 23-year-old striker’s impetus was a bright spot on an otherwise disappointing evening for The Reds .
Gakpo was instrumental in Liverpool’s second goal. From his deep pass, the ball came via Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Toti to Mohamed Salah, who made it 2-1. The Egyptian emphatically involved the Dutchman in celebrating the goal by pointing to the principal immediately after scoring. Klopp saw Gakpo find his place in the Liverpool team, he told ITV afterwards.
“He found his feet in this game,” said the German
“He found his feet in this game,” said the German, whose team was again not running at full speed. “This was not an easy first step for him. We can’t expect it to go perfectly yet, but he gave good signals. We need to get him in even better positions. Without a doubt it will happen,” Klopp said hopefully.
Gakpo played 84 minutes against Wolves and went to the side to loud applause. He played as a left winger and was often found by his teammates. With 41 ball contacts, the debutant was little inferior to Mohamed Salah (46) in that respect. Gakpo scored one goal in his debut match.
Klopp accused his team after the disappointing draw in the third round of the FA Cup tournament that too few games were won with a 2-1 lead. That’s how Wolves came back into the game. “They caused us huge problems,” said the manager, who also frankly admitted that he is not sure that Toti’s third Wolves goal in the final phase was rightly disallowed for offside. Klopp: ‘I doubt. There is one image where it appears to be offside, but I can understand why at Wolves they are upset about it. We don’t want the VAR to be able to see from only one angle.’
The blunder of Alisson Becker is of course also discussed in the interview. With an incomprehensible loss of the ball in his own penalty area, the goalie opened Gonçalo Guedes’ 0-1 in the 26th minute. “We started well and were dominant. We had good moments and then we conceded that goal. That shouldn’t have happened, but we all know how many times Ali saved us,” Klopp said.
