Cody Gakpo on facing Fenerbahce, consistency, Kuyt and Liverpool's attacking potential
Cody Gakpo is looking forward to the challenge and atmosphere awaiting Liverpool against Fenerbahce in the Champions League.
The Reds are in Turkiye for matchday four of the league phase and will be aiming to extend their 100 per cent record this term.
Victories over Atletico Madrid, LASK and Villarreal preceded this clash with Fenerbahce at their Sukru Saracoglu Stadium on Wednesday (5.45pm GMT).
Gakpo attended a press conference with head coach Andoni Iraola in Istanbul to preview the encounter – read a summary below.
On the interim Fenerbahce head coach, former Liverpool and Netherlands forward Dirk Kuyt…
Of course [I followed him]. I think [he won] a lot of caps in the national team as well, had some big moments with the national team. Obviously he played at Liverpool and in Holland as well, he played at Feyenoord [and] I remember I think he scored a hat-trick in the game they became champions the last time [he played there]. I watched quite a bit of him.
On ‘how far off from challenging again’ Liverpool are, with last weekend’s defeat by Arsenal in mind…
At the moment, nine points. I think they are a very good team, they showed it again with phases in the game, and I think we are a team in progress, we are growing in certain points and certain aspects. So, I think we can be close if we have a very, very good day but we are working on the consistency and to stay every game, every minute of the game, a top team.
On ‘why Liverpool seem to be more suited to Champions League football than the Premier League’…
I think it depends how you look at it. I think obviously in the two games [against Villarreal and LASK] we scored some goals but we also conceded, I think, a good amount of goals. I think the Champions League is always something special, special things can happen and that happened in the two games we played there. But I don’t want to say this [competition] suits us more than the Premier League, obviously.
On the amount of potential he sees in the Reds’ attacking unit…
We can see a lot. I think there’s a lot of potential, I think everybody showed it already individually at times, either at the club or at another club, like Bradley [Barcola] obviously just came. I think he showed brilliance at PSG and he showed it as well this year. But yeah, we have to get to know each other very well and I think from that moment on it can only be better than it is already now. Only good things and positive things we can look forward to.
On his experiences of playing in Turkiye and what kind of atmosphere he is expecting on Wednesday evening…
A very hostile and very great atmosphere. I think we played last year also two games in Turkiye and the environment was massive. I think some players like it, I like it to play in such environments and I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully it will be a good atmosphere.
