Report: Manchester United have one doubt about Cody Gakpo and left him for Liverpool

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Manchester United have one doubt over Cody Gakpo, according to reports. It led to them leaving Liverpool a free run to sign him.

This comes from the Athletic. They claim that Manchester United essentially left Cody Gakpo to sign for Liverpool and didn’t compete with the Reds.

Of course, it’s easy to say that now they’ve missed out on the player but it does sound accurate. United essentially had a doubt about Gakpo that killed their immediate interest.

They weren’t sure that the 23-year-old could reliably play as a striker. That’s the position they desperately need to fill, after all, after Cristiano Ronaldo left Old Trafford.

And if they did move for Gakpo now, that money would come out of their summer transfer budget. They won’t want to spend the entire budget in January, and any new striker would also take out funds.

So even though Erik Ten Hag held discussions at the club about signing Gakpo, and even though they do like him, they couldn’t justify moving now. In the end, Liverpool had no competition to get it done.

Manchester United had one doubt about Cody Gakpo

Well, it does make sense and we believe it. Interestingly, the report says Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool knew full well that United wouldn’t move – this wasn’t about beating their rivals to the player.

Instead, we imagine it was the injury to Luis Díaz that truly forced their hand. He’ll be out until March, leaving the Reds without a proper left-winger for a few months.

Gakpo fixes that problem and the fact that he could perhaps play as a striker only increases his value to Liverpool. Even with Díaz back, the Dutchman can get in the side.

Liverpool can afford to take their time for that to work, too. United couldn’t and they need a proper striker right now. That difference essentially guaranteed that Gakpo would head to Anfield.