Gakpo chooses dangerous career path

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Cody Gakpo and PSV are talking again about extending the cooperation. The people of Eindhoven want to keep their star player on board for another year to send him to a European top competition with a national championship in their pocket. With two new trainers in the traditional top three, the battle for the national championship is more than open, but an extra year at PSV instead of a top transfer does not always guarantee success from the Philips Stadium. Not at all as a hanging left winger in the Premier League.

Cody Gakpo’s season at PSV was one with two faces. The hanging left winger had an unprecedentedly effective season (21 goals and fifteen assists), but the Dutch national team’s international was unable to stay fit for an entire season. That makes the attacker’s production all the more impressive – especially in the knowledge that as an attacker you then have to get back into your rhythm several times in the season. The status of the Dutchman at the Eindhoven association helped him naturally. If it is up to the PSV club management, Gakpo will remain associated with the Eindhoven team for (at least) one year. Although all signals seem to be green for an extra year in Eindhoven, especially with the World Cup and the major changes at the top in mind. That seems to be the safest option for Gakpo, although there are also PSV players who previously choked on the same hunger for an Eindhoven national championship.

Cody Gakpo

The fact that there is virtually no comparison material for Gakpo’s player profile is one of the reasons that clubs like Arsenal are emphatically angling for his services. The 22-year-old attacker has a technique that is similar to Memphis Depay, but has a team spirit that is reminiscent of Mark van Bommel. He has the speed with which Steven Bergwijn flashed over the flanks, but a football intelligence that comes closer to Mario Götze. But his most important quality, the ease with which he scores goals, is also his biggest pitfall for the future.

The positions in and around the sixteen in which Gakpo manages to dribble or combine himself often have one thing in common when a goal is scored. The attacker always tries to get into the zone of the goalkeeper’s five-meter area – the distance to the goal is of course different per situation. Whether you send the attacker into the deep or see him pull in on the flank, Gakpo is always looking for the sweetspot which Ruud van Nistelrooy found like no other in his best days.

That makes Gakpo in a league of its own in Dutch football. In the international field, the four-time international of the Dutch national team can only be compared to the man who had his best time in the Arsenal shirt. Thierry Henry may well be the reason Gakpo has a small fondness for The Gunners, although the chances of Arsenal seeing a new Henry in Gakpo are a lot higher.

Transfer?

Like Gakpo, the French forward was very quick and technically agile for someone his size, he was at his best on the left flank and Henry combined his imposing physique with a technique and scoring ability that has earned him a statue in The Gunners’ club history. It therefore seems clear that Gakpo can bring the Henry from Highbury (old Arsenal stadium, ed.) to the Emirates Stadium – no pressure, and all that. However, the success of a transfer does not only depend on the level of the buying club, the pressure placed on a purchase or the developments within a season. The timing of a transfer is sometimes underestimated.

For a club it is clear when it is best to sell: when (the hype surrounding) a player is at his peak. This is not an exact science, which means that technical directors and/or game directors are constantly deliberating between the now classic ‘sell or renew game’. However, as a player there are many more factors that determine whether you feel good enough at a club/in an environment to achieve the best performance. Especially if you are in the position where Gakpo is currently at PSV.

Gakpo will also be the first player under Van Nistelrooy to put the head coach on the scoresheet. With a preliminary round of the Champions League, a new trainer at Ajax (Alfred Schreuder, ed.) and therefore the perfect chance for an Eindhoven national championship, there are plenty of things to win next season. Closing at PSV with the scale in your hands, as Depay did for example, is of course the personal dream scenario for a native of Eindhoven. But whether it is also the dream scenario for Gakpo’s career is another matter. Especially if the left winger does indeed leave for Arsenal or another Premier League team.

Memphis Depay and Steven Bergwijn

In the English royal class, defense is done in a completely different way than in the Eredivisie. Here, many teams play 4-3-3 with the point back or trainers with a 5-3-2 formation try to close the axis of the field (and the team’s engine) with players: it goes in the Premier League still not above a 4-2-3-1 formation. In the cutthroat pace of English football, that seems to be in favor of players such as Depay, Bergwijn and Gakpo.

In the Eredivisie (16% of all shots are a goal, 3.8 shots per 90 minutes) and the Europa League (17%, 3.5 shots), Gakpo finds the space to score a goal on average once in every two games. . In England, Gakpo’s favorite route – pulling in, getting into the ‘five meter zone’ and then picking a corner from this central position with the goalkeeper in the middle – is shielded by a back, defensive midfielder and central defender who individually are about as (physically) strong as three Eredivisie players put together.

You don’t just dribble through that, even with Gakpo’s physique and technique. It then automatically becomes more difficult to get into the same positions as the PSV goals and since that appears to be an optimal position to score a goal, it also becomes more difficult to convert his shots into the same percentage of goals.

If you look at Gakpo’s dribbles at the highest level at which he acted this season (Dutch national team, ed.), you will see that the attacker is already struggling to achieve the same performance as at PSV. Of course, the circumstances at Orange are different: his dribbles in the Dutch national team (4.2 in total, 1.1 passed (23%)) are negligible compared to the dribbles in the Eredivisie (6.1 dribbles, 3.3 passed (60%)) and the Europa League (6.2 dribbles, 4.7 passed (76%).)

As a result, Gakpo does not only end up in fewer shooting positions at the highest level, the attacker can therefore also distinguish himself less well with his passing. In the Eredivisie, 12% of all his passes (30.8 per ninety minutes) are good for an assist/chance, in the Europa League 10% (28.9 per ninety minutes) and with the Orange Gakpo passes more (37.4). , but the percentage of assists/opportunities is lower (5.8%) because Gakpo produced ‘only’ 2.2 chances/assist per 90 minutes.

Extend or sign elsewhere?

As a result, it is mainly for Gakpo to determine what he prefers: entering a new process at PSV, with a new trainer, certainty on playing minutes and a chance at the national championship. The fact that Gakpo’s figures are less with the Dutch national team than with PSV is mainly due to the playing styles of the two teams: at PSV it was mainly about direct play, and therefore a lot of movement without the ball and high pressure and therefore also more room for actions. to make/time to pass. The Orange squad mainly plays combination football and as a result, Gakpo is automatically involved more in the game (as can be seen from the higher number of passes at Orange than at PSV) and he therefore has less freedom to put himself in a good position with running actions without the ball.

This contrast can also be seen among the interested clubs: Arsenal and Liverpool lean more towards direct football, while Bayern Munich and Manchester United (assuming Ten Hag sticks to his football philosophy) seek their solutions more in the combination. That makes PSV coach Ruud van Nistelrooy’s plans and Gakpo’s wish for the future the most important pillars, but not for the most obvious reasons. If Gakpo wants to move to the ‘direct’ side of England, he better leave this summer. Eredivisie players almost always need an adjustment period and if you want to shine in the Premier League, you can’t start early enough. If Gakpo opts for a year of extra security on playing minutes, he will enter his next club as a bigger player, perhaps as national champion. That ultimately makes the transition from his status within the Eredivisie to the wild European top (competition) even greater.

TIP: Take 4.5x your bet at Circus if Gakpo scores against Belgium!

By Bram Steenbeek

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