[Liverpool](https://walkon.com/) had won three straight Premier League games after tough loss to rivals Manchester City, but after putting up five on relegation candidates West Ham United, the Reds lost to another relegation threatened side in Wolves to send them crashing back down to earth again.
As Arne Slot rightfully draws the brunt of the criticism from Kopites for another horrendous managerial performance out of many this season, his favorite player, Cody Gakpo, also deserves plenty of criticism for one of the most disastrous winger performances by any player this Premier League season.
Gakpo was the epitome of everything wrong with Liverpool in this one. At least fellow struggling winger Mohamed Salah managed to salvage a goal, because the Dutch forward did not prove himself useful in the slightest.
With Florian Wirtz out injured, Slot foolishly resorted to making Gakpo the primary focus of the Liverpool attack, but the problem with that is Gakpo isn’t a real left winger at the top level and can’t create on his own against Premier League fullbacks – certainly not like his predecessor Luis Diaz did.
Gakpo provided no key passes and no dribbles completed despite having a large share of attacking possessions. He was a black hole of attacking creativity, and while he at least did not lose the ball remotely as frequently as Salah did on the other side, it is not as if he was doing anything useful with the ball either.
It was already obvious that Liverpool need a new left winger in the summer to replace Gakpo, but he is performing so poorly that the Reds may already have to start weaning his minutes significantly. He is costing his team.
Joe Soriano is the editor of _The Trivela Effect_ and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like _The Real Champs_ (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage _NFL Spin Zone_ and _Daily DDT,_ covering the NFL and pro wrestling.