Hugo Ekitike has enjoyed a terrific start to his Liverpool career, with the exception of the needless red card that he picked up in the Carabao Cup win over Southampton last month.
After joining from Eintracht Frankfurt for an initial £69m deal in July (The Independent), the Frenchman needed only eight matches to reach five goals for the Reds, the most recent of which was his late winner against the Saints three weeks ago.
Unfortunately, in removing his shirt to celebrate that goal, he was shown a second yellow card by Tom Bramall and duly missed the 2-1 Premier League defeat to Crystal Palace the following Saturday through suspension.
Ekitike was hammered by some pundits over his indiscretion against Southampton, with Chris Sutton labelling it an act of ‘sheer stupidity‘, but the 23-year-old hasn’t gone down in his teammates’ estimation because of that incident.
Ekitike remains a ‘popular figure’ among Liverpool teammates
In a Q&A for The Athletic, James Pearce was asked by one reader if that ‘selfish celebration’ from the striker ‘had an impact in the changing room’ at Anfield.
The journalist replied: “No, I don’t believe so. He apologised to his team-mates, it was accepted and they all moved on. He’s a popular figure who made a silly mistake.
“Hugo Ekitike has been the pick of the summer signings so far, and he massively appreciates the bond he has quickly established with the supporters. On that night he got overly excited after getting the winner, completely forgot he had already been booked and paid the price with that one-match ban. Nobody still holds it against him.”
Ekitike has been terrific, aside from that silly red card
Although Slot branded the action as ‘stupid‘ at the time, he subsequently confirmed that – contrary to what some reports had speculated – the 23-year-old wasn’t fined over that red card and had issued a sincere apology to his teammates.
That was effectively the end of the matter as far as the Liverpool squad and coaching staff were concerned, and it doesn’t change the truth that Ekitike has had a tremendous impact since joining the Reds in the summer.
Without his goals, the champions would be four points worse off in the Premier League, which’d currently leave them in eighth place and with a five-point gap to leaders Arsenal.
The Frenchman was badly missed in the defeat to Palace, which triggered the current three-match losing streak and has represented an unwanted turning point in our season, but his overall contribution at Anfield so far has been excellent.
If Ekitike were to bag the winning goal against Manchester United on Sunday, his popularity on the Kop – which is already quite high – would soar to a much greater level!
You can watch Slot’s post-Chelsea press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
Source link
Add Comment