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“I was wondering what he thought, because I knew also that I can do a lot better than I did before if I play in my right position

“Obviously he knew me already from the Netherlands, and I’d just come back from the Euros which were good for me.

“He just said ‘you have to focus on the left wing, I'm not going tell you that you're going play all the games because we have Lucho (Luis Diaz) and other players who can come in and play who are really good, but if you come in or if you play, this is most likely the position you will play’.

“So there was already for me a kind of a relief that I can develop there and become the player I always imagine I can be.

And with the Reds also chasing down the Premier League title, the tweaks brought in by Gakpo’s compatriot continue to have a major impact.

“The style of play is a bit different for the whole team, a little bit more possession-based,” says the attacker.

And another is I think also the qualities that I have, I can really use them from that position.”

Regardless of where he has played, Gakpo has become something of a League Cup specialist at Liverpool.

Having scored in every round bar the final last season, the 25-year-old has again found the competition to his liking by once more netting in the third round, fourth round, quarter-final and semi-final.

No player in the current Reds squad has scored more goals in the League Cup for the club than the nine Gakpo has managed in his 11 outings so far.

“I think it's coincidence,” he says.

“I think also last season, obviously, those also were the games I played almost like 90 minutes, so the chance to score in them is a little bit higher.

“This season, also the first two games in the League Cup, because I wasn't starting in the Premier League, those were also the games I played and in the first two I scored four already.

“So it’s a coincidence, but it's nice to score so it doesn't matter what the competition is.”

Had matters been different, Gakpo could have been lining up against Liverpool at Wembley this month.

The Dutchman is rarely on the sidelines – he had missed just four games in more than two years before the recent foot injury from which he returned this week – which made him a key player 12 months ago when Liverpool’s squad was decimated by an unprecedented injury crisis.

It meant an exhausted Gakpo had been substituted by the time Virgil van Dijk’s header won the League Cup late in extra time against Chelsea for a Liverpool team that had to call on Academy graduates Conor Bradley, James McConnell, Bobby Clark and Jayden Danns.

Not that the forward enjoyed the experience on the bench.
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