Cody GAKPO: 2023/24

There is always one player that has to be the whipping boy.

Gakpo has played really well before. Form is a thing. Gakpo is not in it, but it will come back.

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For me, he’s more frustrating than anything else.

Clearly has talent but it just seems in games something is holding him back.

He’s then indecisive and ends up many times maybe picking a wrong option.

The players available have just won 4 games in 11 days, including a final, with virtually no rotation. There are heroes as far as I am concerned.

Yes Gapko hasn’t been good lately but cut him some slack. He’s earned it.

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Ultimately we’re being forced to push the boundaries and play squad players like him and Harvey every game until the big boys are back and 100% fit and we’re seeing their limits when being asked to play regularly.

Harsh to say but it’s another example for me where neither will reach the levels required to be a first team regular/big game player.

Let us take a moment to consider how we wrote off Gomez, how annoyed we get if Nunez doesn’t score a hattrick, and how ponderous we think Curtis is. Cody isn’t having a great time on the pitch, that only means that we fans should be supportive. Let’s face it, even at his worst, Cody is doing much, much more that all of us combined.

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Love this, well said

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Forget that, he’s still doing well by an average Premier League footballer’s standards. Just because he’s not Mo Salah doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been good during this time. He’s played most of the minutes in the last 4 games.

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My mate Ifti.

Legend.

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Wrong: we are only winning league games because @GermanRed is starting the match threads.

And the Carabao Cup win is entirely down to you.

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I’ve also started the PL 2023/24 thread. Took it to a whole nother level. :upside_down_face:

We’re winning every game, I don’t know why we have to try and be critical of everything. Cody is our 5th choice attacker and has 11 goals and 5 assists.

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And with that comes the issue if playing a different role in every game. That hurts his rhythm and consistency, but that’s a bit of a double edged sword for him. He plays that role because, so far at least, he has not consistently done well enough in any single role to nail down a spot and force everyone else to compete with him.

It also seems pretty clear to me he is held to a standard some of our other more favoured players are not. His mistakes, sometimes perceived mistakes, define the perception of his performance in ways those things don’t for other players. Sometimes that feels unfair, but I sort of get it. All players have a threshold level of proof of their quality and fit they need to give fans for them to have faith. For me, I have seen enough from him to think we’ve got a good one, especially when you consider the context of the difficulty of competing with 4 other such good forwards. But I get why others are less sold and it’s easy to see why that results in a more critical appraisal of his performances.

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Eleven goals and five assists in 38 games isn’t fantastic, but it isn’t horrible either. Each of those goals and assists has contributed to where we are now.

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Weak again, coming off the bench centrally (hoped he would go on the left though) and when we really needed fresh legs, minds. He’s a big lad, but doesn’t use his body well enough. Seen it before with similar body types.

Luis DĆ­az
2717 minutes
11 goals
5 assists

Cody Gakpo
2350 minutes
13 goals
5 assists

For any fifth choice attacker in the world those would be some great numbers.

Cody has been used in 4 different positions which also doesn’t help to build some form.

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https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC/status/1770436112294555884

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Also a point Jürgen made a few weeks ago, by the way.

This is why we can never have a satisfied fanbase. Even when we have a squad that has somehow made it through quite a horrendous injury crisis to in a good position in the league, and make it through to at least the quarter-finals of all cup competitions, having won one already, somehow there still needs to be a scapegoat somewhere.

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There’s a difference between pointing out that somebody isn’t playing well and making them a scapegoat.

There is. And judging by the posts about him, I’m not the one who doesn’t understand that.

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