Cody Gakpo's Liverpool Future: Balancing Club and Country

Cody Gakpo had just ripped through Sweden with two more World Cup goals when the question came. Country or club – where does he really feel at home on the pitch?

“A good question. Obviously it's a little bit different,” he said, weighing his words. “It's different where the coach wants me to be, the freedom that I have.” Then he stopped himself, the sentence hanging in the air.

It was a revealing pause. Because while Gakpo is thriving in Dutch orange, Liverpool red is about to get a lot more crowded.

A left flank under pressure

In the same week Gakpo underlined his status as the Netherlands’ go-to man, Liverpool moved decisively in his area of the pitch.

Victor Munoz has arrived from Osasuna for £34.5m, another winger whose natural habitat is the left. Liverpool have also pushed hard for Yan Diomande, the highly rated 19-year-old RB Leipzig forward who can play on either flank, with an £86m package on the table.

Two potential additions. Both comfortable in zones Gakpo likes to call his own.

For a player who only last summer signed a long-term deal at Anfield, delighted to commit after a title-winning season, the landscape suddenly looks very different.

From title catalyst to searching for form

Under Arne Slot in 2024-25, Gakpo looked like a cornerstone of Liverpool’s new era. Eighteen goals, seven assists, 49 games. Numbers that scream influence, not rotation.

That campaign ended with a Premier League title and Gakpo firmly embedded as a first-choice attacker. Liverpool rewarded him. He signed, he smiled, he settled.

Then came last season.

Three more matches, but only nine goals and six assists. The entire team dipped, and Gakpo was far from the only one whose output sagged, yet he will know those figures are not enough for a forward of his stature at a club of Liverpool’s demands.

This is where the scrutiny bites. Not because he has failed, but because Liverpool are clearly preparing for a sharper, more ruthless version of themselves.

A partnership still under construction

Gakpo prefers the left. Everyone knows that. Cut inside, drive at defenders, open his body and whip shots towards the far corner – it is his signature move, as Sweden discovered again with his second goal.

But Liverpool’s left flank hasn’t always flowed.

The 2025-26 season exposed the growing pains of his relationship with Milos Kerkez. The Hungarian full-back loves to overlap, to attack the space outside. Gakpo often drifted into pockets rather than releasing him early or exploiting the chaos his runs created. The chemistry took time.

It did improve as the year wore on. Patterns emerged. Movements started to sync. Now Kerkez is reunited with his former Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola, the expectation is that the left-back’s development will accelerate.

That might be exactly what Gakpo needs: a sharper, more dynamic partner behind him, and a coach who knows how to weaponise that flank.

Proven numbers, rising questions

Strip away the noise and Gakpo’s record at Liverpool is solid. Fifty goals in 180 appearances. Only Dirk Kuyt has reached a half-century among Dutchmen at the club. When he is fit, he has usually started.

Inside Anfield, they still see him as a proven Premier League attacker, someone who can play in different ways and in different roles. That versatility matters now more than ever.

Hugo Ekitike’s ruptured Achilles could keep him out until 2027. With no like-for-like central cover, Gakpo’s ability to operate through the middle offers Iraola tactical flexibility – especially in a season where the forward line is being rebuilt on the fly.

Mohamed Salah has gone. At least one more attacking signing is expected. The pursuit of Diomande is active, not theoretical. The front line is being redrawn, and every piece will be judged on how it fits the new design.

Wirtz, Ngumoha and the blueprint

There is more competition on the horizon.

Rio Ngumoha, the gifted teenager, is set for a bigger role. Florian Wirtz, who has already featured off the left for Liverpool and is doing the same for Germany at the World Cup, complicates the picture further.

Where Iraola decides Wirtz should live on the pitch could define Gakpo’s Liverpool future. If Wirtz becomes the preferred left-sided creator, Gakpo may find himself nudged inside more often, or rotated, or asked to adapt again.

He has done that before. At times, extra competition has brought out the best in him – as it did when Luis Diaz was at Anfield and every game felt like an audition.

But this summer feels different. For the first time since his arrival from PSV Eindhoven in December 2022, a move away is more than just a theoretical talking point. Clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, are monitoring him. The interest is real.

Liverpool would demand upwards of £60m. That would represent a hefty profit on the initial £35m they paid after the 2022 World Cup. For a club that prides itself on smart trading, those numbers are hard to ignore.

World Cup form, club dilemma

Against Sweden, Gakpo offered a sharp reminder of why Liverpool might think twice before cashing in.

His first goal was all about timing and instinct – arriving at the back post for a simple tap-in, the kind of finish that looks easy because the movement is perfect. His second was pure Gakpo: cutting in from the left, shifting the ball, drilling a right-footed shot home with conviction.

On a night when his Liverpool team-mate Alexander Isak failed to score, Gakpo looked every inch the senior forward.

His World Cup record backs that up. Across the 2022 tournament and this one, he now has five goals in seven games. For the Netherlands overall, 23 goals in 52 caps since his debut five years ago underline his consistency at international level.

Inside the Dutch camp, he is more than just a goalscorer. He plays a role off the pitch too, particularly among the Christians in the squad. “Cody is our pastor – he leads the prayers,” said Crysencio Summerville. It is a small detail, but it speaks to his standing in the group.

Virgil van Dijk, captain for both Liverpool and the Netherlands, does not need persuading either. After the 5-1 win over Sweden, he called Gakpo “an outstanding footballer,” praising his work-rate, discipline, crosses, assists and goals.

Those performances on the biggest stage will not just turn heads around Europe. They could also harden Liverpool’s resolve to keep him, at least for another year, as Iraola reshapes an attack that laboured last season.

New signings often take time. Isak and Wirtz both found their debut campaigns at Anfield more complicated than the hype suggested. That reality is another reason why moving on from a proven, adaptable forward is not a straightforward call.

And so Liverpool enter the summer with a familiar tension: refresh or retain, cash in or double down. Somewhere in the middle of that debate sits Cody Gakpo, cutting in from the left, still deciding whether Anfield remains the place where his best football truly lives.