On August 15th, Liverpool forward Cody Gakpo spoke to the club website about his expectations for the new season and the role he will play under new manager Jurgen Klopp.
Is it still exciting to be on the first day of the new season, even for a player with your experience?
Yes, every first day of the season feels like the first day of school. It’s always exciting. We want to start strong, we want to win, that’s why we’re working so hard in pre-season, even those who arrived later, like me. We want to play our best football and win.
To be honest, I feel really good now. After a short summer break, I’m really happy to be back and continue working hard.
You had a successful European Championship, and shared the Golden Boot award. Does that give you extra confidence going into the new season?
I’m very confident, it was a good European Championship for me personally, but unfortunately, we lost to England. It was also a good experience for our country, even though we could have done even better. I’m very happy to be back, I’m full of confidence and hope to keep that going.
You have a new manager, who is also Dutch. What are your first impressions of him?
Very good, I think he brings a new style of football, based on more ball possession, which I think is good for the team. Of course, we learned a lot from the previous manager. I think if you can combine what they both want to give us, we’ll be a very exciting team.
Have you spoken to the new manager? What role does he see you playing?
Yes, we’ve spoken. He obviously wants me to play as a left winger, that’s what I understand from him.
We have a lot of players in the attacking line, and as you know the season is long, injuries can happen at any position. So he also said, “You will be first in this position, but maybe I will also ask you to play in other positions, and you can play there too, just be ready.” Personally, I want to give everything I have and help the team perform at its best.
Ipswich are back in the Premier League after a long time, they will be full of confidence. You might need to match or even surpass their intensity to get a good result…
Obviously, they want to prove themselves to the world, and we are aware of that. We will be ready from the first minute to the last minute of the game. Like you said, we need to match or even surpass the intensity of the opponent, and then rely on our quality in every position to win the game.
How important is it for a season to get 3 points in the first game?
I think it’s very important, it takes a little bit of pressure off you to get 3 points. Hopefully, we can play a good game and get 3 points, everyone in the team feels good now, and from now on, we can really go for it, for our goals this season.
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