Liverpool are in a tough spell, but Cody Gakpo remains confident a turnaround is coming. Arne Slot’s side lost three in a row just before the international break and headed into it with a bad feeling. Even so, the Dutch forward sees enough positives to get back on track quickly.
Liverpool’s recent wobble has sharpened the conversation around adaptation and identity under Arne Slot.
A three match skid against Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea sent the squad into the international break with a sour taste, even as the league table still shows the Reds in second, a single point behind Arsenal. Cody Gakpo chose not to hide from the issues. In his words, the turbulence is rooted in churn. New signings must learn teammates, patterns and pressing cues, and when personnel changes from game to game even slightly, automatisms take longer to harden. That is not an excuse, he argued, but the practical reality of a group in flux that still expects to compete on every front.
The Dutch forward pointed to an overhaul that removed several familiar faces from the dressing room. Luis Díaz has moved on, and Darwin Núñez, Jarell Quansah and Harvey Elliott have departed as well, which leaves gaps in chemistry that are not filled by talent alone. Years of shared reference points vanished in one window, from how the front line triggers the press to who attacks which zone on cutbacks. Replacing that is like rebuilding a language. You can learn vocabulary quickly, but fluency requires repetition, the same patterns rehearsed until they become instinct. Gakpo’s view is that the process is moving in the right direction, just not as quickly as emotions demand after three straight defeats.
Style adds another layer. Slot’s teams are taught to press with purpose, keep the ball with patience, and change tempo with clarity. Those are repeatable ideas, yet they depend on exact distances. If the front three do not close passing lanes together, possession phases begin too deep. If the eights do not offer the right angles, the center backs are forced into riskier vertical passes and turnovers become transitions against a stretched shape. In the early weeks Liverpool produced strong segments, but the bad run exposed the cost of small misalignments. Gakpo framed it as teething rather than structural weakness, and he placed a high value on continuity in selection once fitness and form allow it.
He also cited fitness timing, noting that Alexander Isak did not enjoy a full preseason. The name matters less than the point. When a key attacker starts short of full rhythm, the whole chain shifts. The winger on his side holds width a little longer, the overlapping fullback chooses safer runs, the midfield underloads certain zones to protect rest defense. That caution can be sensible, yet it also blunts the edge that defines Liverpool at their best. The fix is not magical. It is consistent training time, a clear run of matches with a stable core, and minutes that bring timing back to muscle memory.
None of this dulls the ambition. Gakpo said the dressing room intends to defend the Premier League title, and he believes the squad is good enough to do it. The logic is straightforward. The spine remains strong, the wings still carry 1v1 threat, and set pieces can yield points while fluency returns. In Europe the target is improvement on last season. Winning all four competitions is more declaration than forecast, but it sets the internal bar high and keeps standards sharp during a congested winter schedule. To move from intention to execution, Liverpool must convert territory into high quality shots more consistently and prevent counterattacks at their source when possession breaks down.
The path out of a slump is usually built on small wins. Clean sheets restore calm. A narrow victory reached through control rather than chaos rebuilds trust in the structure. For forwards, a scruffy goal can be the trigger for a scoring run. For midfielders, two or three sequences where the counter press snuffs out danger can change the mood of a stadium. Slot will look for those markers as players return from international duty. He will want a front line that delays opposition counters for a heartbeat, a midfield that keeps compact distances so the next pass is predictable, and fullbacks who choose the right moments to overlap so that rest defense is not exposed to direct balls in behind.
Gakpo’s confidence matters because it reflects the mood of leaders in the group. Belief does not guarantee results, but it fuels the work required to create them. If the next block of fixtures brings a stable eleven, even with one or two rotations for load management, the automatisms he referenced will sharpen. The interplay on the right will become cleaner, the timing of runs beyond the striker will look more coordinated, and the back line will spend fewer minutes defending in broken field transitions. From there, margins tend to swing back. Liverpool do not need reinvention. They need repetition, availability, and a few moments in the box where decision speed matches the chance.
The standings give the Reds little cushion, yet they also confirm that nothing is lost. Second place with a game model that still produces territory is a platform, not a problem. Gakpo’s diagnosis is simple and credible. Integrate the new faces, settle the lineup, and let time do part of the job while standards do the rest. If that happens, the three match slide will read later as a stress test that clarified what had to improve, not as the start of a trend that defined the season.