• yesterday
A big change in a short time is seeing the Dutchman become a key player for their title charge.

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00:00Looking at Liverpool and Cody Gatpern, obviously it was a transfer that they really tried hard
00:06to get in and maybe didn't hit the ground running immediately under Jurgen Klopp, a
00:10bit of a slow burner. But since Arne Schlott's come in in the summer, he's returned from
00:16a player who was in multiple different positions to then Schlott's put him back onto the left
00:21and he's looking fantastic in game weeks. He's obviously got player of the match in
00:27a number of games this season and he's really helping their title bid. What are the key
00:33differences that Arne Schlott's brought to Cody Gatpern's game and how impressed have
00:38you been with him so far this season?
00:39As you say, the main one has been his position. You rightly referred to that he was mainly
00:47a central striker at Liverpool when he came in, even though he played on the left at PSV
00:53which was a little bit of a surprise at the time because he was so prolific for PSV, but
00:59Liverpool had Lewis Dias at the time also. He also played in central midfield at times
01:06for Liverpool last season and I think Jurgen Klopp referred to it and said that maybe that
01:09dented his confidence a little bit. But since he's come in, Arne Schlott's first press
01:16conference was asked about Gatpern's position because he had such good euros, didn't he?
01:21He was asked what he sees as his best position and he said, well, pretty much you'll see
01:25it when I play, which turns out is on the left wing. He referred to it after the Leicester
01:31game that they've changed how they play the wingers slightly. They want to get them in
01:36more one-on-one situations and Cody Gatpern, when he's got the ball at his feet, he's difficult
01:41to stop. He's one of these wingers that you know what he wants to do a lot of the time
01:47which is cut inside and get a shot off or get a cross off. But you just can't stop it
01:53sometimes because he's so quick and so powerful. But then he'll have the support of Andy Robson
02:00or Costa Simacasa overlapping or sometimes he will go to the left and try and get to
02:04the byline. So that keeps the defender thinking really. So a little bit of a guessing game
02:10for the defender, which you've got to do because if he was cutting in every single time, then
02:15defences will double up on him. But yeah, he's been massive for Liverpool. He's been a real
02:23key player. Ten goals already this campaign. He's really starting to come into life now because
02:28he did have a difficult enough start and you were wondering, is he going to really click forward
02:35and where's his best position? How are Liverpool going to get him into the team? And he doesn't
02:39start every single game because Liverpool have got Luis Diaz, but Alan Slott's played Luis Diaz
02:46as a central striker at times this season, which has allowed both Gakpo and Diaz to get on the
02:53pitch. It's been interesting how he's been deployed and yeah, he just looks like a player
02:58who's definitely getting better.

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