Hugo Ekitike is unlikely to make the same mistake again for Liverpool but former Everton favourite Tim Howard believes he shouldn’t have been punished in the first place
Arne Slot, head coach of Liverpool, looks on as Hugo Ekitike leaves the field after receiving a second yellow card after scoring the winner against Southampton(Image: Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
It’s been a rollercoaster start to his Liverpool career for Hugo Ekitike. The £79m summer signing from Eintracht Frankfurt scored on his debut in the penalty shoot-out defeat to Crystal Palace in the Community Shield and the goals have continued since.
The 23-year-old leads Liverpool’s goalscoring charts with five goals in nine games. And, despite the arrival of Alexander Isak for a British transfer record £125m, it is Ekitike who could argue to be Arne Slot‘s first-choice centre-forward at present.
But it hasn’t been all highs. The new France international came off injured in the Reds’ 1-0 Champions League defeat at Galatasaray on Tuesday after missing Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League loss at Crystal Palace through suspension.
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Ekitike was forced to sit out the trip to Selhurst Park after being sent off in the 2-1 Carabao Cup victory at home to Southampton. The striker was shown a second yellow card for removing his shirt immediately after he scored what would proved be the winner for Liverpool.
Reds head coach Slot was unhappy with Ekitike, saying after the match: “I told him that if you score in a Champions League final in the 87th minute after beating three players and hitting it in the top corner I can maybe understand you say: ‘It’s all about me’.
“But I’m old fashioned, I’m 47, I’m old, and I haven’t played at this level but I did score a few goals, and if I scored a goal like this I would have turned around and walked up to Federico Chiesa and say: ‘This goal is all about you, this is not about me’.
“So, yeah, needless, not smart, you call it stupid and I call it stupid.”
Slot drew a line under the episode at his press conference on Friday when he confirmed that Ekitike had apologised and that he not been fined for the sending off.
But for former Everton and USA goalkeeper Tim Howard, the Liverpool new boy did little wrong in the first place.
“I don’t know what the impetus was to make this a yellow card,” Howard, who made 414 appearances for the Blues across a 10-year period, said on the Unfiltered Soccer Podcast.
“It’s stupid if someone made the rule. Was it because people were having like undershirts with messages? Sure, sure. So just make that the rule.
“My point is, if you’re wearing red or blue and your undershirt is red or blue or you’re just bare-chested, it’s fine. If you throw your shirt up in the air, your team-mate can go get it. It’s fine.
“If you have a slogan or if you take your shirt and you throw it in the stands, sure, you get yellow-carded.
“But do you know how many other stupid celebrations I see every weekend? It’s dumb. Change the rule, change the rule.”
Ekitike was immediately recalled to the Liverpool starting line-up in midweek but followed goalkeeper Alisson Becker in coming off injured against Galatasaray.
But unlike the Brazilian, it appears the Frenchman should be fit for Saturday’s big Premier League clash at Chelsea.
Slot said of Ekitike: “He felt something when he had to reach for the ball, I think we all know which moment it was.
“When we were trying to force something, I thought I can’t get that long of a time, on the other side there was someone on the floor as well, the referee blew his whistle and I wasn’t really thinking that we had an injury, but Hugo felt something.
And after the game, that’s always the difficult thing with these moments, when players feel like, oh, it’s not too bad, but when you just walk around with something different, and when you make a spin, you have to shoot another one from the target.
“He said he couldn’t continue, so we had to take him off. Let’s see how he responds.”