A Liverpool star was slammed after his “selfish” performance at the international level got him a low grade.

This week, the Reds are back after the international break. One player may be more excited than others after how well he played for his country recently.

A Liverpool star got a bad grade because of a “selfish” showing for his country.

Arne Slot is happy that up to 20 Reds have been away on international business in the last 10 days. Most of them have done well with their countries and returned from their trips without getting hurt.

However, the recent break also gave players who aren’t usually in Liverpool’s starting lineup a chance to show the new boss what they can do. The Reds have played all three games this season with the same team, with only one half-time change.

Cody Gakpo would have been one of those players. He has only played 53 minutes in three substitute starts so far in 2024–25, but his recent performance for the Netherlands doesn’t look like it helped him.

The 25-year-old scored a goal in Saturday’s 5-2 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina and played 66 minutes in the Nations League match. On Tuesday, he was placed in the starting lineup again for the 2-2 draw with Germany and played the full 90 minutes.

Others might be surprised by that, since Gakpo’s play in the tie was criticized by national media, who called it “selfish.”

He got a 6 from Voetbal International, which was the second-worst rating of any player. Voetbal Primeur gave him a 6.5 rating and said, “Gakpo was dangerous a few times and had multiple chances but failed to take the lead.” Additionally, he was somewhat ungrateful, as his friends were in better shape.

SofaScore says that Gakpo only touched the ball 40 times in 90 minutes, lost it eight times, threw 21 passes that went astray four times, and lost four duels. Based on this, it looks like the Dutchman hasn’t done anything to improve his chances of taking over for Luis Diaz on Liverpool’s left wing before this weekend.

Gakpo scored three goals in six games at Euro 2024, helping the Netherlands make it to the semi-finals and being named one of the tournament’s best players. This season’s play is very different from that.

Yet, Gakpo hasn’t started a single game for Liverpool this season, so maybe his poor play on Tuesday was to be expected. But he’ll have plenty of chances to show what he can do since Liverpool has seven games in three weeks starting this weekend. They are also back in the Champions League and the Carabao Cup.