Arne Slot has confirmed Cody Gakpo is available for Liverpool’s Champions League clash against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.
The forward has not started a game in nearly a month and, after returning to the squad for the recent wins over Manchester City and Newcastle United, dropped out for the two subsequent matches against Southampton and then PSG.
Liverpool won the latter 1-0 despite PSG dominating the game. Slot has said the Reds can’t afford to have a similar performance this time and having Gakpo - who trained on Monday - back will be a major boost.
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“Yeah he will be in the squad. He trained today for the first time,” the Liverpool boss said.
It’s unlikely the former Feyenoord man will be fit to start, but he could provide an extra option off the bench. Slot will hope that can help improve the performance levels of his side and this time out he is expecting a display consisting of greater possession and more shots on goal.
“We try to play every game and try to win. That’s how we played last week. It wasn’t our intention to be so low every time. We wanted to have a different game than we played over there but sometimes the other team, with the help of their fans… we all saw what happened.
“Tomorrow, we want to play a different game, but our intentions are always the same and we won’t go for a draw. We just want to win every single game and have the ball as much as we can. At City away that wasn’t the situation and at Paris Saint-Germain.
“We do take confidence from our home game against City where we did have the ball much more. It was more of an equal game than the away game at City. Everyone is writing about 27 shots and that is also what I saw but if you put the 27 shots in a row it’s not that they were all amazing saves from Alisson. He had two or three incredible saves but most of theirs were from outside the 18-yard box.”
Slot also said Liverpool may have to put in its best display of the season to progress to the quarter-finals, while adding he thinks the tie is 50/50 between two of Europe’s top five clubs.
