Liverpool Win Over Atletico Raises Concerns for Cody Gakpo
Liverpool’s Champions League campaign began with a win – and a worry.
They edged past Atletico 2–1 in their league-phase opener, but did it without one of their early-season centrepieces. Cody Gakpo never even made the bench.
The Dutch forward, who had trained and played through a flying start to the season, missed Tuesday’s crucial session and was ruled out entirely. Head coach Andoni Iraola later explained that Gakpo finished his previous 90-minute outing with pain in both adductors, enough to take the decision out of everyone’s hands.
No grand drama. No season-defining diagnosis. Just a badly timed problem in a brutal schedule.
“He doesn’t have a proper injury,” Iraola said, outlining the situation. Gakpo’s issues are described as niggles rather than a tear or strain, but the discomfort was significant enough that Liverpool’s staff refused to gamble. They had expected him to be available for Atletico; that plan evaporated as the soreness lingered.
The dilemma now lies in the turnaround. Liverpool face Fulham at the same ground in just two and a half days, and Iraola can’t yet say whether his in-form attacker will be ready.
“I don’t know [if he will be back for Fulham]. I hope so, but I don’t know,” he admitted. “We expected to have him for today, [but] it hasn’t been possible. It’s not a big thing, but the problem is we play here [again] in two days and a half.”
It is a headache precisely because of how influential Gakpo has been under his new manager. Three games, one goal, three assists. Numbers that only hint at the authority of his performances.
His latest league outing underlined that. On Friday night he went the distance, 90 full-blooded minutes, orchestrating a 2–0 win over Ipswich Town. He set up Alexander Isak twice, driving Liverpool’s attack and stretching a defence that never got close to working him out. It looked like the platform for an explosive month.
Instead, Liverpool are now juggling minutes and managing risk.
Iraola knows the physical toll is mounting. Atletico demanded intensity. The calendar demands more of the same. Recovery has become as important as tactics.
“I think now is a moment of recovery in these two days,” he said. “Let’s see how Bradley has finished, how Cody is [and] if he can give us some minutes. If not, Rio, Victor, I think today everyone has done a big effort.”
The message is clear: the group will have to bend before it breaks. Rotation is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.
Fulham arrive next, with Liverpool back at home and expectations unchanged. The match is “very important” in Iraola’s words, not just for points but for momentum in a season that is already compressing into a series of must-manage moments.
“So, I hope we can have Cody with us,” he added, “but I cannot guarantee it.”
Liverpool have their win. They have their rhythm. What they don’t yet know is whether their early-season creator-in-chief will be there to maintain it when Fulham walk out onto the same turf.
