Jamie Carragher has admitted he is ‘baffled’ by the signing of Cody Gakpo and has blamed some of the Reds’ current woes on Jurgen Klopp after the German tactician failed to sign a new midfielder in the summer.
The Anfield side were interested in signing French international Aurelien Tchouameni from Monaco, but after he opted to sign for Real Madrid, the Merseysiders turned their attention to no other midfield targets and the former Borussia Dortmund manager. he insisted that he was happy. with his current options.
Striker Darwin Núñez was signed by Benfica in the summer in a deal worth an initial £64m and our only signing from last month’s window was the arrival of Gakpo from Dutch PSV, a move that appears to have left to our former No. 23 quite bewildered. .
“In attack, Díaz started his Liverpool brilliantly but [Darwin] Nunez is a work in progress, and I am baffled to see Gakpo’s first performances,” Carragher wrote in The Telegraph (via Express). “Gakpo is not a typical Klopp signing, he lacks blistering speed and the ability to command high press.
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“Why commit up to £45m to someone who will be on the bench when Diaz and Diogo Jota are fit? Especially when another area of the team needed strengthening? Since the summer of 2022, Liverpool have committed £180m to four attackers: Luis Díaz, Fabio Carvalho, Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo. The owners of Liverpool did not stop investing. They did not know how to invest in a midfielder. Now they need a new midfield.
“Liverpool wanted to sign Aurelien Tchouameni from Monaco, knowing his market value was £75m. When Tchouameni chose Real Madrid, the money was there if Klopp wanted an alternative, but he opted to wait until 2023, hoping to lure Jude Bellingham. That was Klopp’s decision, not owner John W. Henry’s.”
It’s understandable why Carragher claims that the money spent on Gakpo should have been spent on signing a midfielder with many of our performances so far this campaign simply not good enough.
Our struggle for consistency has been blamed on a lack of quality in our midfield with Jordan Henderson and Fabinho performing nowhere near their best this term and Thiago Alcantara unable to do it all on his own.
Although the signing of Gakpo has caught the attention of some, at just 23 years old the Dutchman still has his best years ahead of him and his versatility is something that will have caught Klopp’s attention.
We’re pretty well provisioned in the attack department now, so it’s imperative that reinforcements be signed in the middle of the park in the summer.
Jude Bellingham is believed to be the club’s main transfer target, but the teenager is also attracting interest from Real Madrid and Manchester City.
Alternative options other than the 18-year-old should also be lined up should Bellingham opt to move somewhere other than Anfield.
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