Cody Gakpo has barely arrived at Liverpool and has already sent shivers down the spines of Real VARdrid defenders

Cody Gakpo has already sealed his arrival at Anfield in the first big transfer of the winter transfer window, a signing that, apart from giving Liverpool a powerful asset for their Premier League and, above all, Champions League aspirations, is a major cause for concern for Real Madrid given that Los Blancos will face the English side in the last 16 of Europe's most prestigious competition.

Although David Alaba and Éder Militão, assuming they start the game, have been very solid in both the group stage of this and the previous edition, the presence of a player like Gakpo will create many problems for the Austrian and the Brazilian given the great virtue that the 23-year-old Dutch player possesses: his constant mobility between spaces.

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In addition to this, the player has shown during the course of the World Cup a technical ability that rival defenders have to take into account and this will be another cause for concern for the aforementioned Militão and Alaba as well as Aurélien Tchouameni, the other man who will have to be very attentive to Gakpo's movements.

But the novelty of this signing is not just that Liverpool's bid to beat Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League has been substantially strengthened, but because there is one key element that has convinced the player of his landing at Anfield: Virgil van Dijk.

Van Dijk convinced Gakpo to sign for Liverpool

In addition to Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal have been keeping a close eye on Gakpo during the World Cup, but the Dutch centre-back's arrival on the scene has been crucial in the Reds' favour. According to the Daily Mail today, Van Dijk called his compatriot after the conclusion of the tournament and persuaded the winger to join the club amid growing interest in the former PSV Eindhoven man's services.