Small thread on Gakpo:
I rewatched Gakpo as a CF stretching back to 2020. A massive factor to determine whether a player will be good in a diff. position is how well he adapts cognitively. Despite having some base CF qualities, Gakpo struggles cognitively when playing there.
I rewatched Gakpo as a CF stretching back to 2020. A massive factor to determine whether a player will be good in a diff. position is how well he adapts cognitively. Despite having some base CF qualities, Gakpo struggles cognitively when playing there.
Specifically, he’s not as good with his back to goal from two angles:
1) he doesn’t use his body well (think about Jesus)
2) he doesn’t scan effectively
When he’s at LW, he has the inside of the pitch to worry about. Upfront, he has both sides and he struggles with that.
1) he doesn’t use his body well (think about Jesus)
2) he doesn’t scan effectively
When he’s at LW, he has the inside of the pitch to worry about. Upfront, he has both sides and he struggles with that.
Likewise, when he’s facing FBs, they’re generally smaller and he has set patterns of movement i.e. he controls, moves inside and turns. Up front, CBs are bigger and more combative, and he doesn’t have those patterns and so sometimes looks a bit ‘raw’.
So, it’s either because he’s just not familiar with those angles, the contact, patterns and spaces, as I said in the original tweet, or there’s some deeper issue. A good coach can work a player out of both but the latter is much harder and sometimes impossible.
If Gakpo never had any qualities suited to being a CF, I’d be pretty much against it. I’m still not confident with it, as the Discord server will attest to, but there *is* a possibility Erik makes it work due to his ability to maximise talent. It’s a risk nonetheless.
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