Cody Gakpo was made available in the market by PSV at £25 million. Manchester United needed cover in both the ST and LW positions with Martial and Rashford's injury concerns and didn't pursue another forward after the failed plans of signing Marko Arnautovic.

 

So far, Manchester United for majority of the games have had Marcus Rashford in the ST position due to CR7's 'fitness' issues and Martial's injuries. Rashford isn't really the type of ST suited to play the ST role in ETH's system but he's done decently and now he's suffered a minor injury. This also means that United currently only have 1 striker and that striker also isn't necessarily suited to ETH's system. Signing Cody Gakpo was a logical decision that had to be taken especially at that price tag. 

This season in the Eredivisie, Gakpo has scored 8 goals and provided 6 assists. He's mostly played on the left but he has the versatility to play centrally as shown when playing for Louis Van Gaal's Netherlands team. In LVG's 3-4-3, Cody Gakpo is often seen playing centrally with Depay and Bergwijn out on the wings. That front 3 is positionally fluid meaning they will all switch positions as the game flows. That is in line with ETH's philosophy of wanting positional fluidity in his front 3 as well. Gakpo would have fitted into the ST role under ETH and would have linked well with Sancho and Antony and Sancho would have been the biggest beneficiary.

It's a shame that now Cody Gakpo's transfer value will continue to increase and with the upcoming World Cup where he will most definitely be one of LVG's standout players, that transfer fee of £25 million will most likely double or even triple by the summer of 2023. It's just another story and another day of incompetency from the United board.