Cody Gakpo makes Liverpool goals admission as Mohamed Salah departure nears
Cody Gakpo has backed Liverpool's forward line to cover for Mohamed Salah's absence when he departs for the Africa Cup of Nations next month. Salah is the Reds' top scorer this term with 16 goals across all competitions and 12 in the Premier League but Jurgen Klopp will have to make do without the talisman when he flies out for international duty with the Pharaohs after the visit from Newcastle United on New Year's Day.
The Ivory Coast competition will run from January 13 to February 11 and Salah will be expected to inspire Egypt once more after his efforts helped them to a penalty shootout loss in the final nearly two years ago against Sadio Mane's Senegal. Gakpo started against Burnley on Boxing Night as goals from Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota took Liverpool to the top of the Premier League with a 2-0 win and with Luis Diaz also on call for Klopp, the Netherlands international has no concerns about struggling without the Egypt captain Salah next month.
"Yeah, of course (it's important)," Gakpo said when asked about Nunez breaking his goal drought. "For every attacking player who didn't score for a few games it's always nice to get back on the scoresheet and he did it today with a very good goal.
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"For Diogo as well, when you are injured and you come back and score, that's always nice and good for the confidence. So I'm really happy. Mo is gone after the Newcastle game so we need the goals. It was a good start, after that a good goal and a few good chances but we [killed off] the game quite late but overall a good win."
"I didn't see [the ruled out goal] back
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