Liverpool has stopped the bleeding and has just gone five matches without defeat. Everything is not perfect, far from it, and Arne Slot has had complicated days with the Mohamed Salah affair. But if there is something that works on the Anfield side, it is Hugo Ekitike, one of the summer recruits. At the beginning of September, we wouldn’t necessarily have bet that the Frenchman would be the most convincing reinforcement, based on the new arrivals. Especially because Liverpool had decided to go all out to recruit Alexander Isak in the same position.
But now in mid-December, it is almost impossible to find a detractor of the former Rémois, author against Brighton of his second consecutive double in the Premier League. Here he is at seven goals in the championship. Proof of his importance, Liverpool have won seven of the ten league games in which Ekitike has started this season, and only one of the six in which he has not played. Because the 23-year-old Frenchman also ate his black bread with the integration of Isak, short of form following his training strike at Newcastle.
Van Dijk is under the spell
Before finding the net against Leeds on December 6, Ekitike had not scored since September 20 against Everton. But during this period of eight games, he only started three times. Time to let Isak show his current limits. From now on, all of Liverpool has taken a liking to the Frenchman, starting with his partners, like his captain Virgil van Dijk. “He is very effective in front of goal. He is important because of his goals and hard work. He is demanding of himself, and we all expect a lot from him. It hasn’t been an easy season, but for him to come in and produce such statistics is excellent. This is what we need. He just needs to stay calm and keep working. »
His coach Arne Slot also congratulated Ekitike for the work done. “We mainly focus on Hugo’s goals, which are very important, but I also see something else: he is getting stronger and stronger. It is increasingly difficult for other teams to dispossess him of the ball. He has more and more energy to run, with or without a ball. » And that’s what Slot is most concerned about at the moment, finding a collective where everyone takes their share of the defensive work. Ekitike is rewarded for his efforts, with three consecutive tenures. And we don’t see what would deprive him of a fourth, next Saturday, for the trip to Tottenham.
