James Milner admits Cody Gakpo’s desperation after watching him play against Brighton.
James Milner has urged Liverpool to demonstrate “fighting spirit” against Wolves.
James Milner lauded Liverpool’s January signing Cody Gakpo and urged a “fighting effort” against Wolves.
Saturday marks the Reds’ return to Premier League play as they try to close the gap with the top four. The FA Cup holders were eliminated by a stoppage-time goal scored by Brighton & Hove Albion, giving them two victories in two weeks.
Jurgen Klopp’s squad is winless in the league since the beginning of the year and will go to Molineux on Saturday in search of a confidence-boosting victory as the necessity of putting together a winning streak increases.
Gakpo was announced as a Liverpool player at the start of the January transfer window and was the sole player to join the club during the entire month. He has started the last four matches for the Reds, but has failed to score on Merseyside.
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Milner stated on the official Liverpool website that the 23-year-debut old’s in the Premier League has shown good indicators. “You see people like Stefan joining the squad and performing really well, and it’s vital that we safeguard them and ensure that they continue their success.
“It’s important we keep that positivity. 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.
“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.”
Last month’s FA Cup match against Wolves demonstrated that Julen Lopetegui’s team is no pushover despite their vulnerable position in the Premier League. Before Harvey Elliott’s long-range goal in the rematch, the match was tied at two goals apiece.
The Midlands side are outside of the bottom three based on goal differential and are tied with Bournemouth in points. Although Liverpool is in the spotlight as they attempt to fire on all cylinders.
“It’s down to us put in a good performance, a fighting performance,” Milner rallied. “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.
“It’s at times like this where we need the team spirit we’ve built over the past few years. The togetherness is still there and there’s never any pointing fingers [within the squad]. It’s about what we can do together and that’s how we’ve won trophies and been successful as a team.
“We will go through hard times as a team. There’s disappointment, obviously. The fans will be disappointed as well as people around the club. But we said it when we were successful and it’s the same now – nobody puts more pressure on us than ourselves.
“We need to be better in a lot of areas, and we’ll keep pushing to do that. We know this squad is capable of going on big runs and making something of this season. We need to do that by sticking together and working hard.”
