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Hugo Ekitike is a rare example of a footballer who benefited from not playing – tough love has transformed him into a complete forward.
That is the view of European football broadcaster Andy Brassell, who detailed how early failures helped the striker explode at Liverpool.
The 23-year-old has arguably been the only instant hit of the Reds’ record-breaking £446million summer splurge so far this season.
Ekitike scored five goals in his first ten appearances under Arne Slot, including in the Community Shield and the Merseyside derby.
It is a far cry from the striker cruelly nicknamed ‘Mr No Goals’ by German outlet Bild following his early Bundesliga struggles last year.
However, Liverpool’s deadline-day capture of Alexander Isak for a British record £125m sparked debate over his role in the team.
talkSPORT journalist Brassell has been following Ekitike’s story with interest ever since his emergence with Reims in Ligue 1.
“Whenever a player hits the ground running straight away, coming to the Premier League, you’ve got to be a little bit surprised because it’s difficult to adapt to the league,” he said.
“From a certain perspective, coming from the Bundesliga is quite a good place to come from, because it’s the same sort of frenetic pace of football. So I think in that sense, it helps.
“If we look at Ekitike’s form, it’s really the second half of last season, after [Omar] Marmoush goes from Eintracht Frankfurt [to Manchester City], that he has to step up.
“He has to step up and really, really raise his level and take the responsibility for leading the team in the attacking sense.
“That’s the sort of player and that’s the sort of guy he is.
“Now, quite how this works in the medium term with Alexander Isak, I’m really interested to see, because Ekitike is not just a player who has the tactical and technical qualities that you would want… he is someone who wants to be leaned on. He wants to be given the responsibility.”
The two forwards are yet to start together at Liverpool, with manager Slot favouring a 4-3-3 system with one central striker, with Isak preferred in the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday.
However, Isak has already played in a front two with Arsenal‘s Viktor Gykokes, with Ekitike also doing so alongside Marmoush at Frankfurt.
Brassell added: “Ekitike is intelligent and adaptable enough for it to work. But if you go back to the beginning of his emergence in professional football, when he was at Rennes, the notable thing about him is not just that he can lead the line at such an early age.
“It’s not just his clear potential, but he shows up in the big games, he scores goals in the big games. That’s something that you saw from him all the time.”
Isak competition good for me – Ekitike
Ekitike has already proved that to Liverpool fans, most recently scoring the winner in a 2-1 Carabao Cup victory over Southampton.
Ahead of the Champions League defeat against Galatasaray, the Frenchman insisted that the arrival of Isak will help him develop.
In an alternate universe, the pair could have found themselves being Newcastle teammates, with Ekitike thrice rejecting the Toon.
The forward turned down approaches from Eddie Howe on two separate occasions in 2022 to link-up with Paris Saint-Germain.
Newcastle ultimately sealed Isak’s club-record move to St James’ Park, with Ekitike again spurning their advances for Liverpool last summer.
“He either made a really bad decision or made a really brave one in going to PSG because, of course, he could have gone to Newcastle early in the Eddie Howe era, and he decided to go to PSG instead,” Brassell told talkSPORT.com.
“Now, you look at where they are in terms of the composition of the squad at the time, and particularly the presence of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar. And you think, well, ‘How are you going to start?’
“To an extent, I think that kind of flattened his confidence a little bit.”
Failed Everton and Brentford transfers
Ekitike’s spell at PSG was nothing short of disastrous, managing just three Ligue 1 goals in 25 appearances in his first season at the club.
Everton were named among the suitors interested in giving a lifeline in August 2023, but Sean Dyche was unable to complete a deal.
He was then offered to Brentford, but refused to be used as a makeweight in a deal for Randal Kolo Muani and was frozen out.
Even after Messi and Neymar had both left, he managed just one eight-minute outing without scoring in the first half of 2023-24 and was excluded from their Champions League squad by Luis Enrique.
Ekitike eventually escaped to Eintracht Frankfurt on an initial loan in February 2024, but took two months to score in Germany.
Brassell continued: “You could see he was, I don’t know if he was less confident or just less used to playing when he arrived at Frankfurt, but he looked rusty at the beginning, and far from his best.
“People were not impressed by him straight away. I think it’s fair to say when he arrived in the Bundesliga, it took him a while to bed himself into the team.
“What worked well for him, of course, is that he’s not just someone you can judge on his goals. He’s someone who’s got a very, very good all-round game.
“He’s super intelligent, he uses his body well, which he always has done, actually, since he’s been pretty young.
“I think if we look back at him in years to come and say he goes on and continues to start at Liverpool and is a really big player for them, I think we might actually look back at that spell at PSG and think, ‘Okay, well, maybe he did know what he was doing going there’.
“He may not have played, but he got to really study under the three of the best forward players of that or any other generation and to train with them all the time.
“I mean, it was something that he said he had to be a real student.”
‘Neymar and Messi weren’t particularly helpful with young players’
Despite his limited playtime, a 2022 report by L’Équipe claimed Messi affectionately nicknamed Ekitike ‘the iron rod’ due to his ‘wiry frame’.
That seemed to be the extent of their rapport, with Brassell explaining: “It’s a little bit like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill 2, where she turns up at the temple and Pai Mei refuses to teach her and she just keeps going back.
“Eventually, he deigns to teach her, and he’s not nice with her; he’s really brutal. When you hear Ekitike talking about his spell at PSG, it sounds a little bit like that.
“He said, ‘Well, the thing was with Neymar and Messi, they weren’t particularly helpful with young players. They just did their thing and you just had to watch them.’
“So it’s not like he got taken under the wing of any of these superstars. He had to really buckle down for any minutes he was going to get.
“He really had to fight hard to actually glean any knowledge from them. But it’s clear that he has got something from it.
“I think that really tough part of his career, even though it’s easy to look back and say, ‘Well, he made a mistake there, he held up his career.’
“You look at how quickly he’s adapted to Liverpool. And I think it’s clear that what happened the first time he went to a massive club, an elite club, and it didn’t work, has clearly made it easier for him to adapt to an elite club the second time.
“It’s almost like failing a driving test the first time and being a better driver, passing the second time than if you had just passed the first time after ten lessons. He’s got that bit of knowledge.
“The failures shaped him a little bit. He knows that there’s a pecking order, and it’s difficult sometimes.
“You can’t assume help from elite players. And so he’s gone on in there to Liverpool and stood on his own two feet instantly.”
Ekitike benefits from a bit of tough love
Ekitike’s attitude since arriving at Liverpool has proved that, having not had his confidence affected by his red card against Southampton.
Brassell concluded: “I think he has really developed from when he was at PSG. You could see him put that into practice at Frankfurt.
“Clearly, he’s still learning, and what happened against Southampton was a mistake that Arne Slot was quite clear was one that he can’t make again.
“It feels to me that Ekitike, we talked about the dynamic between him and Messi and Neymar in particular, less with Kylian Mbappe.
“It’s clear that he kind of benefits from a bit of tough love. So I think for him to be given a short leash probably works quite well for him.
“Because if you think of the moments where he had to step up for runs early on, when he was given the keys to the team pretty quickly, then at PSG, where he finds it hard to get a game, and the guys who he might have hoped would coach him on the pitch don’t really do it.
“Then you look at Eintracht Frankfurt when he arrives, and it’s a really difficult start.
“Obviously, there’s expectation because they’ve shaped so many players into superstars. So, a different kind of expectation than you would get in an absolute elite club, but expectation nonetheless.
“He manages to deal with that and develop into this sort of complete centre forward.
“Then at Liverpool, where he gets this public rap across the knuckles from Arne Slot. Slot’s smart enough to know, ‘Right, okay, this is what he responds to, basically.’
“In terms of how I think Ekitike will respond to setbacks, I guess the answer is, it’s already there in his career.
“He’s responded to setbacks really, really well.”
