Tottenham Hotspur have only a month left to seal their new attacking signings for manager Roberto De Zerbi after shoring up the rest of the squad, and although Manchester City standout Savinho has long been the main name linked to Spurs on the wings, Liverpool left winger Cody Gakpo is becoming an increasingly popular scenario for the Lilywhites.
The thing is, there is a reason why Liverpool want to move on from Gakpo this summer. He only had 12 goal contributions last season while taking over the start job from Luis Diaz, who was sold to Bayern Munich and really made the Reds pay with an incredible season.
While Gakpo is a more well known name than Tottenham's current starting left winger Mathys Tel, he would cost likely double the 30 million pounds Spurs spent to sign the young Frenchman permanently from the Bavarians at a discounted rate last summer transfer window.
Mathys Tel is a better pure winger
This offseason, Tel has been arguably Spurs best overall player on the pitch in the friendly matches. Not only did Tel score an insane free kick against Sydney FC, but he has been involved in other goals for the Lilywhites and has been taking defenders on with dramatic results, doing the best of any Tottenham Hotspur forward at creating chances for himself and others.
Tel showed that quality in bunches last season despite getting pulled in and out of the lineup by a revolving door of managers, and he was so much better than his peers on the left wing that even Roberto De Zerbi, who favored veteran players over the rest during the Premier League relegation fight, ended up leaning on the 21 year old as his main starter.
Cody Gakpo has been phenomenal for the Netherlands and is a great technician who can shoot and create chances, but he is not a real left winger, which is why Liverpool are willing to spend more than 100 million pounds to sign Bradley Barcola as his replacement from PSG.
Although Mathys Tel is less proven on paper, he is a much better pure winger in terms of taking defenders on, getting into the box, holding width, and opening up the pitch. Gakpo played a huge role in the other Liverpool stars, especially new signing Florian Wirtz, struggling badly because he narrowed the pitch, could not beat defenders, and could not create shooting opportunities for himself.
Gakpo will never be able to explode or beat defenders inside and outside like Tel. He is six years older with less upside and none of the pure left winger traits that Tel has. Going for Gakpo to start over Tel could be a poor allocation of resources.
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