Cody Gakpo's Future: Liverpool vs Netherlands

Cody Gakpo walked off the pitch with two more World Cup goals to his name and a question that cut straight to the heart of his club future.

How does the Netherlands’ Cody Gakpo differ from Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo?

“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. No more elaboration. No controversy. But the pause said enough.

Because back on Merseyside, Liverpool are quietly redrawing the attacking map around him.

A left side getting crowded

In the same week Gakpo tormented Sweden, Liverpool moved decisively in the market. Victor Munoz arrived from Osasuna for £34.5m, another winger whose best work comes off the left. Talks continue over a package worth £86m for RB Leipzig’s 19-year-old forward Yan Diomande, a livewire who can play on either flank.

Two signings. Both comfortable in Gakpo’s zone of influence.

It inevitably raises the question: where does that leave a 27-year-old who, only a season ago, looked firmly embedded in Liverpool’s long-term plans?

Under Arne Slot in the 2024-25 title-winning campaign, Gakpo delivered. Eighteen goals, seven assists, 49 games. Numbers that justified his long-term contract extension last summer and underlined his status as a core part of the project.

Then came last season. Three more appearances, but the output almost halved: nine goals, six assists. He was not alone in underperforming during a stuttering campaign, yet he will know that, in an attack under review, those figures invite scrutiny.

Chemistry on the flank – and a new voice in the dugout

Gakpo has always made it clear where he feels most dangerous: cutting in from the left. At Liverpool, that role has increasingly depended on his understanding with Milos Kerkez.

In 2025-26, that partnership often misfired. Kerkez’s aggressive overlapping runs were there; the timing and angles of Gakpo’s combinations often weren’t. The patterns improved as the season wore on, but the sense lingered that this was a relationship still in its early chapters.

Now Kerkez has been reunited with his former Bournemouth manager, Andoni Iraola, at Anfield. The expectation is simple: under a coach who knows him inside out, the Hungary left-back should accelerate his development.

If that happens, it could transform the left side—and it could be exactly what Gakpo needs. A sharper, more confident Kerkez gives the Dutchman better platforms: underlaps to feed, overlaps to release, space inside to attack.

Liverpool still see Gakpo as a proven Premier League attacker, someone who can adapt to different roles across the frontline. With Hugo Ekitike potentially sidelined until 2027 with a ruptured Achilles, that flexibility has real value. Gakpo can play centrally. He can tuck in, drift, link. He gives Iraola options at a time when the squad badly needs them.

Life after Salah and the Wirtz question

The context is brutal. Mohamed Salah has gone. At least one more attacking signing is expected. Diomande is high on the list. Talented teenager Rio Ngumoha is pushing hard for a bigger role. Florian Wirtz, who spent spells off the left for Liverpool last season and is currently operating there for Germany at the World Cup, complicates things further.

So much hinges on one judgement from Iraola: where is Wirtz at his most devastating?

If the answer is “off the left,” the knock-on effect is obvious. That channel becomes the most congested area of the pitch in Liverpool’s squad. Gakpo, Munoz, Wirtz, Diomande, Ngumoha: all capable of operating there, all with different profiles, all expecting minutes.

If Iraola instead sees Wirtz as a central creator, the picture shifts. Gakpo’s path to regular football on the left opens up again, albeit with fiercer competition than at any point since he arrived from PSV Eindhoven in December 2022.

He has thrived in that kind of environment before. When Luis Diaz was at his explosive best, Gakpo responded, raising his own level to stay in the conversation. Added competition can sharpen him. It has done so already.

But for the first time since he pulled on the red shirt, the prospect of a move away is no longer unthinkable. Several clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, are monitoring his situation. Any deal would likely start at upwards of £60m, a significant profit on the initial £35m Liverpool paid after the 2022 World Cup.

A World Cup reminder

Against Sweden, Gakpo offered a pointed reminder of what he brings when the pieces around him fit.

His first goal was all about timing: a classic back-post arrival, a simple tap-in that only looks easy because he reads the move a beat quicker than the defenders. The second was pure Gakpo—cutting in from the left, opening his body, and drilling a right-footed shot past the goalkeeper. Trademark stuff.

On a night when club team-mate Alexander Isak failed to score for Sweden, Gakpo’s composure stood out.

His World Cup record now reads five goals in seven games across the 2022 and current tournaments. For the Netherlands overall, it’s 23 goals in 52 caps since his debut five years ago. Those numbers do not belong to a fringe player. They belong to a forward who consistently delivers on the international stage.

Inside the Dutch camp, his importance stretches beyond the pitch. He plays a leading role in the squad’s Christian group. “Cody is our pastor – he leads the prayers,” Crysencio Summerville said, a small window into the influence Gakpo carries in the dressing room.

Virgil van Dijk, captain for both Netherlands and Liverpool, hardly needs convincing. “He is an outstanding footballer,” he said after the 5-1 win over Sweden. “He works so hard for the team, he's disciplined and his quality stands out - his crosses, his assists, his goals.”

Those performances and those endorsements will not go unnoticed back at Anfield.

The conundrum Liverpool cannot ignore

Gakpo’s Liverpool record is not easily dismissed. Fifty goals in 180 appearances, only the second Dutchman after Dirk Kuyt to hit a half-century for the club. When fit, he has usually been first choice. He has already proved he can shoulder responsibility in a title-winning side.

Yet Liverpool are reshaping an attack that laboured last season. New faces are arriving. Roles are being redefined. Patience with high-profile recruits can be tested—just look at the early struggles of Isak and Wirtz in their debut campaigns at Anfield, a reminder of how steep the adaptation curve can be.

In that context, Gakpo offers something rare: a forward who knows the league, knows the club, and still has room to grow. Letting him go would be a bold call. Blocking his pathway without clarity would be just as risky.

For now, his attention is locked on the World Cup, where he looks liberated, decisive, and central to a unified Dutch squad. Back in Liverpool, Iraola and the recruitment team watch, plan, and weigh up their options.

Keep Gakpo at the heart of the rebuild, or cash in while his stock is rising again?

That is the decision looming over Anfield’s summer.