Cody Gakpo and Liverpool Expecting Fight from Revitalized Everton
The Blues have won three in a row and look safe from relegation following the return of manager David Moyes.
While it’s clear many in the Liverpool squad inherited by Arne Slot have thrived under the manager in his first year in charge at the club, none have seen their fortunes improve more under the Dutch manager than a pair of Dutchmen.
In midfield, Ryan Gravenberch has emerged as one of the Premier League’s players of the season and arguably the league’s best six—a position nobody expected him in when he signed for the club a year previously.
Meanwhile, it took a few months of feeling things out under the new manager but forward Cody Gakpo has now fully clicked into gear and established himself as the second most important player in an attack spearheaded by superstar Mohamed Salah.
That the Reds are six points clear with a game in hand—the game in hand being tonight’s final Everton Derby at Goodison—owes a lot to Gakpo’s goals as well as the somewhat unorthodox threat he provides down the left.
“I think for them maybe it’s an even more special game against us,” Gakpo noted ahead of the match when asked what he expects out of the Blues. “It’s the last game there so it’s going to be maybe an emotional game for both sides.
“But at the end we have to stay as focused as possible and put as much intensity in it as we can to go out there and win the game. Hopefully that is the outcome for us. I think for every player it is different, but I like to just focus on the game.”
After looking realistically relegation threatened for much of the season, the return of manager David Moyes in the dugout for Everton has seen them win three on the trot. Their table position isn’t much improved, but their points tally is.
They’re still 16th but have opened up a nine-point gap on 18th place Leicester City—along with seven on 17th place Wolves just clear of the relegation places themselves and ten on Ipswich in 19th. The Blues now appear safe.
“I think they are doing pretty well at the moment, a new manager and revitalised,” Gakpo added. “But I think this is a special game anyway, it’s a derby, so we just have to go and fight for the win. It will not come easy so that’s what we plan to do.”
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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