Dutchman Cody Gakpo is in high demand from a number of Premier League clubs including Manchester United and Liverpool. Why? Because he’s tactically very malleable. 

At six-foot-three, Gakpo is an unusually tall winger. His height does make him more of an aerial threat, and increases his stride length, making him all the more frightening for defenders in a one-vs-one scenario. 

However, more so than most wingers in the modern game, he has proven himself as a match-winner while being deployed in various different ways. For his club PSV, Gakpo players like a more traditional winger. He’s the widest player on the pitch. 

Wingers who are used in this way are typically good ball carriers whose manager wants them to get on the ball early in attacks. Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben were Bayern Munich’s best players under Pep Guardiola, and so they were often the players who stretched the play most. He felt their quality would be wasted on third-man runs through the middle. Bukayo Saka is better described as this kind of winger too. 

Gakpo is very good in this role, with a mean crossing ability. So often the provider, Gakpo’s quick feet allow him to get into passing positions regularly. 

And yet, for the Netherlands’ national team, Gakpo is used so differently. Taking up a much more central position, the 23-year-old must make runs off the ball, and get between the opposition lines to create imbalances and overloads. We often see him making a dart in behind the defence to latch onto a diagonal pass from deep. He rarely gets the opportunity to stretch his legs with a long dash for PSV, but it’s one of the facets of his game that makes him so dangerous. 

At the World Cup, the Netherlands played a 3-4-1-2 shape, with Gakpo just behind the front-two. Manager Louis van Gaal wanted to see Gakpo receive the ball from midfielders with his back to goal and shift quickly to turn and play out to more advanced attackers — like a classic No 10, a Mason Mount-type player. 

Here, Gakpo’s quick reaction time came into play, helping the team play on the counter-attack. His height and unlikely strength made him a good match for opposition holding midfielders who tend to dominate with aggression. 

Gakpo can be moulded; he’s dynamic. Football is increasingly played in short stages of 10, 20 minutes. Having a player like Gakpo will boost a manager’s options in-game. He can be the widest ball carrier, the inverted winger we’ve seen year-on-year from Liverpool and Chelsea, or even the ‘man in the pocket’ to help progress the ball centrally. Gakpo’s really good.