James Milner says Liverpool teammates Cody Gakpo is “desperate” score his first goal for his new club after a slow start to his Anfield career.
Gakpo, 23, joined Liverpool from PSV Eindhoven at the start of the January transfer window in a deal which could eventually reach £45m.
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Manchester United and Arsenal were also reportedly interested in Gakpo after he impressed for the Netherlands at the World Cup, scoring three times to help his nation reach the quarter-finals in Qatar.
He has found goals much harder to come by since arriving in English football.
The versatile forward, who can play out wide or through the middle, is yet to score in his first five appearances for Liverpool.
But he produced his best performance for the club so far in their disappointing 2-1 defeat to Brighton in the FA Cup last weekend.
Milner: Gakpo was ‘outstanding’ against Brighton
Milner was impressed by Gakpo against Brighton and believes it is only a matter of time before the Dutch forward gets off the mark.
“It’s easy to be very down and look at all the negatives when you aren’t getting results you want, but it’s important to highlight things that are good as well,” Milner told Liverpool’s website.
“At Brighton, I thought Cody was outstanding. He’s obviously desperate to get on the scoresheet, but I thought his performance in the game was outstanding.
“It’s important that doesn’t get lost because, if you’re not acknowledging the good things you’re doing, it’s going to be hard to get the momentum and the confidence to get on a roll.”
Liverpool face Wolves away from home in the Premier League on Saturday, the third time the two teams have met in recent weeks.
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Liverpool battled to a 2-2 draw with Wolves in the third round of the FA Cup at Anfield in January, before winning 1-0 away at Molineux in the replay later that month.
Milner is expecting another tight match this weekend and has called on his teammates to grind out a much-needed victory, with Liverpool currently 10 points off the Champions League places.
“It’s down to us put in a good performance, a fighting performance,” he said.
“Wolves will give us a tough test. We’ve experienced that pretty recently, it’s never an easy place to play. It’s a good atmosphere to play in and the fans get behind their team.
“Hopefully we can play well and create lots of chances. But sometimes, when things aren’t going quite so well, the best performances are when you dig in, keep a clean sheet and get an ugly away win. That can give you so much.”
SOURCE: sportbible.com
